#so she died while ashton was still a teen

[two-calicos-in-a-trenchcoat]

My gen 4 sim just aged up into a toddler and??????

Shes so fucking cute???????? I love her?????

[katyspersonal]

Collision, Family, Volcano, Crown, Ruler and Fire for Izzy! (Her character has such a cool concept yet there is so little about her character in this fandom i need more of her,,,,)

Hey!! Thank you for asking! And also your ask made me want to finally do another quick doodle of her x)

Baby boy. Baby. vs Evil

(Asks from this ( x ) meme)

💥 COLLISON - what emotions do they have trouble dealing with? 🌋 VOLCANO - how bad is their temper? is it a slow boil, or a instant explosion?

I am combining these questions because the answers to both are quite connected, hope this is okay!

Izzy will go feral, figurally and literally, when someone either threatens people she is willing to protect or knows which regrets of hers to turn outside. Although she thinks reasonably and tries her best to have a grasp on her impulses and "be an animal responsibly!", she unfortunately is vulnerable to provocation. You know that one smug asshole that simply knows all of your insecurities and will lead you in public (friends or families) so they could humiliate you or dig through your dirt? ...no? Well, it is the worst kind of parental/authority figure, and Izzy is likely to see red and even physically attack a person like this. If she is around someone who knows how to get under her skin, she needs a more collected friend to ground her and remind her this is not worth her passion and anger.

Conclusion: slow boil, unless you pull the right strings! He can pile up grudges and anger- heck, it took a while for Izzy to "explode" at Ludwig with telling him in exact detail how much of a dumbass he was fhfhdsfd Yet on the other hand, Ashton (a crucial OC for the story) infuriated Izzy upon like, second significant interaction!

👪 FAMILY - what is their family like? what is your ocs relationship to them? does your oc have any siblings?

I envisioned her as the only child and someone growing without mom, raised just by father who was also quite harsh on her. A hell lot of emotional problems that never got resolved, just piling up over the years. She never tried to earn her dad's approval, nor strongly rebelled against him, but simply tried to coexist with little to no trust to the irrational fool that never knew what did he want.

The father had plenty of siblings on the other hand, so Izzy got to see various uncles, aunts and cousins often! With most of them Izzy was friendly and they felt more like a family than his dad, but still it was a little soured since for them her dad was the best person even with no flaw whatsoever and in her kid and teens she lacked the nerve to ruin the good picture. Izzy stopped writing any letters to her father or cousins from Yharnam in the end. There were just too many absolutely batshit things happening that letters would not cover, but he didn't want to bother with 'fake' and shallow letters either.

👑 CROWN - what does your oc want to be remembered as? why?

Izzy simply wanted to have his place amongst other significant people in Yharnam, whether it'd be as a great hunter or as a significant researcher! In a way, this wish came true.. you know, discovering a whole new philosophy in all that... mess of Kin, Beasts and humans, that STILL (!!!) has people like Josef diving into Loran dungeons to get at least close to the revelation about beasthood Izzy found? Izzy died as a monster, not knowing her legacy would live on beyond cursing Yamamura's homeland with beasthood, but she'd be very content to know she left the potential of "better humankind" open :')

📏 RULER - is your oc well educated? where did they get their learning from?

Izzy is actually well-versed in subjects like math, history, chemistry and biology! She knows a lot of literature and art too, it is just not a forefront and only brought up accidentally, when she tries to recite a poem that no one recognises. Doesn't help that her manner of talking is really "simple" for the lack of better term, and her education is only obvious when she IS discussing the topic! I always joke that she is a jock+nerd hybrid xD

She went the self-taught road as soon as she gained enough maturity to understand the teachers at the school tended to abuse their authority and the educational system itself was sketchy and with propaganda of certain ideas baked in it! If they wanted to overreact at her reasonable curiosity, then whatever! Calling them out on their bullshit and doing her own thing at the library it is, then! Because of how she studied everything "unofficially" she never had any certificate for her rich knowledge. But out of all Hunters visiting Byrgenwerth, only Izzy took a whole room to conduct researches, not to mention giving good lectures..... until Willem finally walked in and shooed her with a broom fdhfdjdsd

🔥 FIRE - do they have any self destructive tendencies? what habits do they have that hinder them from becoming their best self?

If you count self-inflicted beastly evolution and accelerating Vermin she got inside herself to properly become a part of her blood as self-destruction, then I guess so xD But in her defence, her choice of path to evolution preserved the humanity in its true nature the best!! Filth of humanity is not something to "cleanse" but something to cherish and protect from Great Ones who abuse it!

I'd say a flaw that guarantees his "failures" is inability to control the way arrogance grows as soon as his ideological enemies are marked. Izzy gets commentaries on being too stubborn from friends often, even when he is objectively right! She is actually quite similar to Laurence with the whole "I know what's best for humanity!".. Izzy is actually a strong competition to Mico in terms of being Laurence's rival: they both have these grand plans, whereas Micolash largerly doesn't care about humanity and sees most as cattle. But God FORBID you TELL Izzy this fhdhfdshds

Also:

I want to present.. the sequel

Izzy: Unlike you fanatics I am able to listen to the ideas that contradict mine without losing my shit uwu

Caryll: Embracing beasthood is not the rebellion against the vicious cycle of Moon Presence that you think it is but a truthful part of her plan same as Star Kin that receive redemption from her, the only way to win is to not play.

Izzy:

Ok ok I am done now fhhdshfdhf Thank you for the ask again!!

[seven-homosexual-dinosaurs]

Fuck it Bell’s Hells vigilante au

-The Hells are a group of superpowered vigilante roommates in a modern au

-If you think housing seven people in a single home is difficult, you’d be right

-But hey, fighting crime doesn’t pay and they like to support each other

-It used to be eight of them, but Bertrand died and Dorian moved away

More under the cut

-Laudna shares a room with Imogen, Ashton shares a room with Letters, Orym shares a room with Fearne, and Chetney either shares with Ashton and Letters or takes the couch

-Letters is a sentient android who pretended to be faulty in order to escape his creator. Was found by Ashton in a junkyard. He exists most of the time in his small, robot body, but they switch over to a human-looking body in order to go out and exist in the public. As far as anyone but the Hells know, they’re human. An excellent cook. He has advanced healing capabilities

-Fearne doesn’t technically have real hooves, but her prosthetic legs are made to be hooves and she thinks that’s just as cool. Really toes the line between villain and vigilante with all the crime she commits. Her parents left her with her grandmother when she was young to escape certain powerful people. She has shapeshifting and plant powers

-Imogen ran away with Laudna when they were teens. She definitely needs glasses, but she hasn't gotten around to seeing an optometrist yet. She's still doing some deep digging on her mother, who left when she was young. She is afraid of heights and has major daddy issues. She has telekinesis, psychic, and lightning powers

-Orym's husband was killed one day when he was out fighting crime. Out of all of the Hells, he is physically the strongest. Great gymnast and acrobat, he used to do ballet. He's the one that invested in their home security system. He knows how to make one thing in the kitchen and it's pie. He has minor plant powers but mainly relies on his own athletic abilities

-Laudna's joints "suck absolute ass", as Ashton put it kindly. Her parents were killed by the upper-class Briarwoods when she was younger, and they tried to kill her too. She took a bus out of town and lived on the streets for a while, terrified the Briarwoods would find her and finish the job. Met Imogen and ran away with her. She can transform into her form of dread, as well as the ability to control/manipulate ichor she can secrete.

-Ashton grew up in an orphanage until he ran away with the Nobodies. They shoplifted and robbed to survive, with the occasional odd job for some shady folk. Ashton got left behind during a heist gone wrong, so he ended up taking the entire fall. They felt betrayed enough by this to leave the nobodies and work on their own for a while until he met FCG and eventually the Hells. They can turn parts of their body into solid crystal at will

-Chetney is an old woodworker that pretends to be offended anytime anyone offers him the senior discount for the shits and giggles. He thinks using machinery for woodworking is an insult to the craft. As much as he pretends not to care for the Hells, he's grown truly fond of them over time. He is going to fuck Fearne one day, just you wait. He is slowly working his way from the "friends" status to "friends with benefits". He has a werewolf form he can enter at will

-Bertrand used to be the owner of the house the Bells currently inhabit. He didn't have any special powers or abilities, but he tried to help people where he could. When he died, he left his house to Fearne, who immediately invited the rest of the Hells to live with her

-Dorian fought and lived alongside the Hells for several months until one of his enemies found his civilian identity and went after his brother. The villain was ultimately killed, but Dorian didn't feel his family or identity was safe anymore, so he and his brother left the country just to be safe. He used to share a room with Fearne and Orym. His power is the ability to control people by singing

-If you're wondering why the Hells are vigilantes and not heroes, that would be for one main reason: they all fucking hate cops. As a group of disabled minorities who've repeatedly been shunted and hurt by the system, they have no respect for cops or their bullshit. In fact, many of their fights are against cops

-The police force tried to claim they were working with and helping the Hells at first, which resulted in several of the Hells going on record to say absolutely fucking not, showing up at protests in costume, and Ashton incorporating ACAB into his costume

-Since then, the cops have been very anti-Hells, trying to convince the public that they're terrorists and menaces, with mixed results

[skeeter-110]

I Dreamt About You Every Night

Tony Stark has been dead for seventeen years due to a mission gone wrong. He's survived getting blown up, palladium poisoning, terrorist attacks, and even Thanos himself, and he gets killed by - what was supposed to be - a simple day-to-day mission. Or, so everyone thought.

Chapter One:

“I dreamed of you every night. It felt so real. And when I’d wake up the next morning, it was like your disappearance was fresh. Like you’d left me all over again.” - Brodi Ashton, Everneath.

Peter couldn't help the frustrated sigh that left him as he stared at the long line of traffic in front of him. He just wanted to hurry, get home, and try to forget what day it was by spending time with his family.

It's been seventeen years since the worst thing imaginable happened. Seventeen years. And Peter still wasn't over it. He still moped around like a little child; as if he had any right to still be as upset over it as he was now.

AC-DC could be heard playing on the radio, causing Peter to let out a groan before roughly turning the radio off. Of course, the silence didn't last long before his phone started ringing. Looking down at it, Peter saw that it was a call from Doctor Banner.

The traffic finally start moving, so Peter just rolled his eyes and declined the call, continuing his journey home. His phone rang another three times after that, Peter ignoring those attempts also, before they stopped altogether. That was, until Karen chimed in through the speakers.

'Peter, I'm afraid that Miss Romanoff is demanding me to out her through. She's using her override code.' Karen informs, Peter huffing at it all.

"Of course she is." Peter murmurs, waiting for the spy's voice to chime through his radio speakers.

"Peter?" Nat's voice rang throughout the car, as if she didn't know that she would get through to him by using the override codes.

"Hey, Nat." Peter acknowledges, feigning nonchalance.

"I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing; I haven't heard from you in a couple of weeks." Nat says, subtly trying to make conversation.

"You know, Nat, for being a trained spy, you're terrible at lying." Peter teases as he pulls into his driveway, hoping that it'll distract Natasha from the real reason she was calling; even if it was only for a little bit.

"You know, Parker, you're still as sassy as ever, even without spending time with Tony." Natasha retorts back, not really thinking about what she was saying until an awkward silence fell between the two.

“Can we be done with this conversation?” Peter snaps, all but slamming his front door behind him.

“No, I haven’t gotten my point across yet.” Nat says, gearing up to give Peter the same lecture she gives him every year on this day. “It’s been seventeen years now since Tony died, Peter.” Nat begins, and didn’t that reminder just drive the knife in deeper?

Seventeen years ago, Tony Stark died.

As if Peter wasn’t aware that the anniversary of his death was today and needed that reminder. As if Peter hasn’t beaten himself up for the past seventeen years for not being able to get to Tony in time to prevent his death.

It was supposed to be a simple in and out mission. They were supposed to go in the - seemingly - abandoned HYDRA base, grab the leftover files and anything that seemed of value and get out. That was the only reason Peter was even allowed to go with them in the first place. Because they were expecting it to be a simple mission, the team decided that splitting off in pairs would be best.

The mission was going great, too. Tony and Peter - who were paired up together - decided to split up on the floor they were on to try and gain more information faster. Which proved to be the wrong thing to do because before they knew it, the whole team was trapped inside of the building, hundreds of HYDRA soldiers surrounding them.

By the time Peter was able to fight the ones around him off long enough to run back to the room he left Tony in, the billionaire was gone. Peter ran all over the floor they were on - which was difficult considering the fight the soldiers were bringing - but there was no sign of Tony.

Peter could hear Steve yelling in the coms for everyone to get out of the building and go to the meeting spot as soon as they could. Peter just assumed that Tony had left, had followed orders for once, and headed out himself.

The teen quickly found out how wrong his assumption was when he finally got to the quinjet and saw everyone except for Tony there.

For five years, Tony Stark was declared missing.

After year six rolled around, his body was found under the Brooklyn bridge.

And for all of those seventeen years, Peter hasn’t stopped blaming himself.

If he hadn’t agreed to split up, if he had been better, stronger, maybe all of this could have been avoided. Maybe Tony would still be here.

“You need to accept the fact that it was not your fault. You need to stop blaming yourself.” Nat continues with her lecture. At this point, Peter could recite the whole lecture back at her.

“Nat, I just got home from one of the longest days, and I still have to have dinner done before M.J gets home with the kids. Can we be done here?” Peter sighs, hoping to save himself for the rest of the lecture.

“You need to visit Pepper.” Natasha says anyway, making Peter groan in frustration.

“Nat, I have no right to go visit her! She lost her husband and has a real biological child that lost her real biological Father. It would be wrong of me to bother them during this time.” Peter argues, begrudgingly putting the phone on speaker - since Nat very clearly wasn’t going to end this conversation anytime soon - and began getting some pots out to begin dinner.

“You have every right to be with them. You know Pepper saw you as much of her child as Tony did.” Nat reminds, Peter choosing to remain silent as he filled one of the pots with water. “Pepper’s getting worried about you since you haven’t gone and seen her in a month. She just wants to make sure you’re okay; we all do.” Nat adds, pushing Peter officially over the edge. He was beginning to get tired of people constantly telling him they were worried about him when nothing was wrong with him.

“Just stop! I’m not going to have another breakdown like I did before! I’m not a kid anymore, I’m a grown-ass adult!” Peter shouts before quickly hanging up. He knew he just signed his own death sentence, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care at this point.

Instead, he just turned the stove on and began to boil the water sitting in the pot. While waiting for it, Peter walked into the living room and plopped down onto the couch with a heavy sigh; taking his suit jacket and tie off while he did so. He just wanted to relax, be with his family, and completely forget what day it was today. Was that too much to ask?

Although, by trying to completely forget, Peter began thinking about something else. Peter was still left thinking about Pepper and Morgan.  

Even after Thanos, when everyone came back, Pepper and Tony both have never made Peter feel like an outsider because of Morgan. Even Morgan accepted Peter into their family, fully adopting him as her older brother. But Peter still couldn’t help but feel like a burden to them; especially now. How could he ever be family with them again if he was the reason they lost their husband and father in the first place?

It might have been a cowardice move, but Peter would rather distance himself from them than have it slip that they actually blamed him for all of these years. Unfortunately, Morgan didn’t get that memo.

Morgan refused to let Peter shut himself out. She always showed up, whether it was announced or not, refusing to let Peter banish himself from the Stark family forever.

Which was why Peter instantly tensed back up when he heard a knock at the front door. He and Morgan settled on having dinner together at least every other Friday, but he usually canceled whenever it landed on the anniversary. Morgan clearly didn’t listen when he canceled this time -  and from his conversation with Nat - he isn’t all too surprised.

Peter quickly got up off of the couch and makes his way into the kitchen, grabbing the noodles and pouring them into the boiling water as another knock echoed through the house. “I’m coming, I’m coming!” Peter announces before making his way to the front door.

“Sorry, Mo, I didn’t realize the time. Dinner might be a little-” Peter begins to apologize, the rest of his sentence getting stuck in his throat when he opened up the door and saw that it wasn’t Morgan who was knocking.

“Hey, Kid.”

Tag List: @spideyspeaches​ @lost-lunar-wolf​ @joyful-soul-collector​ @hatakehikari​

[wastelandcth]

idk if you write angst but could you write an angsty piece of the reader and cal fighting? cal is the dude to not fight and talk it out but maybe they have a fight they never really had before and it kinda goes to shit? the reader leaves for a few hours, leaves her phone at home so she can’t call anyone when she realizes it’s too late and cal calls the boys/girl’s to help find her and it results in seeing the reader a mess bc she thinks her and cal are over but they’re not and it ends in fluff?

okay this was one of my favorite things i’ve written lately so i hope you like this! also...maybe smut?? idk it’s probably not smut but also alluding to smut so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Movie Moments

"Hey man...have you or your missus heard anything from her? I...she hasn't come back home yet and it's getting pretty late." Calum mumbled into the phone as he rubbed his face, leaning back against the couch, "I was thinking maybe she'd gone over to talk to one of the girls but Ash and Mike said they haven't seen her today and neither have their girls. I just, I don't know what to do at this point." he sighed, looking over as he heard Duke whimpering at his feet, the old dog sensing his worries.

Thinking about it now, it had been a stupid fight. A fight that had been bubbling up for days now and Calum had the chance to nip it in the beginning but he was too stubborn of a person to be the first one to break again. He felt like it was always him fucking up and having to apologize for a disagreement. This time it wasn't even that much of his fault, to begin with. So their week began with a rocky start, both of them tiptoeing around each other as they tried to keep the impending fight at bay.

It started when she had left her laptop on the couch again. It wasn't anything intense, just her laptop on the couch. But Calum had gotten home exhausted from the studio and landing back onto the laptop didn't improve his mood, his backache the next morning just adding to his bad mood. Then when he'd left his running shoes near the doorway and she'd tripped and almost fallen on the ground, she couldn't help but utter out a few curse words, kicking the shoes back into the bedroom. But it didn't matter, because when she'd walked out the door at the end of their dumb fight, Calum knew he'd fucked up just as much as her.

"I just don't understand why you're so stubborn and won't accept the fact that I'm trying to help you out here! It's all I ever want to do, help you!" Calum winced at the own harshness of his voice, the thunder in the background making them both jump, "I want to make sure you're okay and that you don't do something stupid!"

Her life felt like a movie sometimes. Sometimes it felt like a teen coming of age movie when she and Calum were driving in the car with the windows down and some upbeat song came on to remind them that they were alive and together in this crazy world. Sometimes it felt like a romance movie, whenever she and Calum kissed and her world stopped because when Calum kissed her she felt like it was just her and Calum in the entire universe. Sometimes her life felt like a shitty romance movie, where the couple gets into a big fight and one of them gets stuck in the rain trying to deal with their feelings.

"I just don't understand why you're like this sometimes! Like, am I not enough for you?! I've tried, I've tried to become the best person I can become and you still treat me like I'm this...like I'm some dumb child who doesn't know how to take care of themself. I'm not a child, Calum! I'm a fucking adult, yeah I may be younger than you and you've seen more of this world than I can ever possibly imagine but you're no better than me. Deep down your just like me, you're just a fuck up who's scared to admit it and I'm just...I'm sick of having to tiptoe around this." her hands were shaking at this point, her hair sticking to her forehead as the rain kept falling around them.

Calum watched as she walked back inside of the house, the storm outside dulling into a sprinkle, not that it mattered much since they had both been soaked already. He watched as she grabbed her bag and her keys off of the counter and made her way towards the front door. He could've stopped her, he knew that if he went in there and apologized that she wouldn't leave, that they'd be able to talk things out. But Calum was being stubborn and he wasn't going to defend himself for wanting to take care of her, it wasn't like he was telling her she wasn't capable of doing so.

She was lost. The winding streets of the city leaving her confused and helpless. She really wished she had remembered to bring her phone when she had stormed out of the house but in her haste to leave, she'd left it. She could imagine it too, the clear case showing off the yellow phone and the polaroid picture of Calum and Duke that she had put there a few months ago, sitting on the coffee table where she had set it down before they'd walked outside to talk. It was probably dead by this time too, since she hadn't charged her phone since the night before. But now she had no way of knowing where she was or how to get back, the moonlight being blocked by the rain clouds that seemed to be mocking her. She could've walked to Ashton's house, maybe even Luke's since they were nearby their own house, but she couldn't face them, she couldn't face anyone at the moment. She'd decided on walking, to clear her mind, and try not to ruin what she had with Calum by saying something she didn't mean while angry. But the rain disoriented her and now she was sat on the curb, her jeans wet, her shoes soaked, and her tears being hidden by the raindrops falling around her.

She could've knocked on the door of whoever’s curb she was currently sitting on, ask them to use their phone to call Calum or one of her friends, but the idea of being kidnapped by them or worse would just prove Calum right and even in her panic she didn't want to deal with him saying 'I told you so' at her funeral. So instead she sat in silence, her body shaking from the cold as she tried to come up with a plan. She could've gone to the main road, tried to find a payphone, but it was late and she didn't really want to bump into the crowds of partying tourists and college students who flooded the night clubs during the weekends. She had been walking for what seemed like hours, she could've been in an entirely new city for all she knew, her sore feet protesting as she stood up to keep walking.

Bright headlights made her eyes squint as she made her way down yet another hilly neighborhood. Her body stiffening as she noticed the car flashing their lights at her and pull up next to her. Her breathing quickened as she prepared herself to bolt, her blood going cold as she imagined the worse. Calum really would've been upset at her funeral if she died like this. Relief flooded her as she heard a familiar Australian accent, watching as Luke parked the car and stepped out, his arms wrapping around her tightly and murmuring how he was glad to find her.

"You want to talk about it?" Luke asked softly as he glanced over at her while he drove them back home. It had been a few minutes since Luke had seen her walking down the steep hill, a few minutes after he'd called Calum and told him that he'd found her and she was safe. She found herself sitting in Luke's passenger seat, the seat warmer doing wonders for her shivering body. She shrugged, looking down at her hands as she thought about what she could say to the blonde.

"I'm not the best with directions, LA is stupid big and I got lost. I personally blame whoever made this city with so many hills and houses that look alike," she mumbled as she looked out the window, smiling weakly as she heard Luke scoff, which she hoped was more of a laugh. "Big cities are the worst. How is he?" she asked as they pulled into the driveway, her eyes landing on Calum who was stood outside of the front door waiting for them, his shoulders relaxing as he saw the car pull in.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled as she stepped out of the car, not expecting to be engulfed into Calum's arms the second she was out. Her arms wrapped around his body, her eyebrows furrowing as she felt his body shake and his uneven breathing on her neck. "C-Calum? I'm okay, I promise. I just got lost and...you were right. I can't take care of myself I'm sorry..." she rambled nervously and held him closer to her, her hand rubbing his back as she tried to calm him down. She'd only ever seen him cry a handful of times and it had never been because of her, the guilt rising up her body as Calum led her inside, thanking Luke as he got back into the car and drove off, giving you both the space you needed.

She followed Calum inside, the quiet house they'd both become accustomed to felt suffocated. The tension heard in their footsteps and in between Calum's sniffles. Her eyes looked towards the coffee table, a sigh leaving her as she saw her phone. She watched him as he walked around the kitchen, getting them both a glass of water and turning off the lights, something he'd do every night before bed. She followed him down the hallway to their bedroom, watched as he set the glasses down on the bedside table before he walked into the bathroom. She slid off her shoes as she heard the shower turn on, walking in to find Calum sliding off his damp shirt. His skin felt like fire against her cold fingertips, helping him slide the shirt up his torso before it fell to the floor with a thud. His eyes met hers, both of them tired and full of sadness as his fingertips played with the hem of her shirt, slowly pulling it off to join his on the floor.

The bathroom had steamed up by the time they'd both stepped into the shower, soft apologies whispered in between kisses. Her back was against the wall, her hands gripping his hair as she gave herself to him. His hands squeezed at her soft skin, the warm water enveloping both of them as they drank each other in. They moved as if they were made for one another, one of his hands holding one of hers above their heads as he left a trail of kisses down her jaw, his mouth whispering against her skin the words he only mumbled to himself when she was asleep. Her free hand tugged on his dark curls, soft moans leaving her as she listened to him, her body on fire as she wondered how she could have ever doubted that this was what she wanted for the rest of her life.

Laying in bed, the rain outside was different. It no longer felt like a movie moment to her. She was no longer stuck in a shitty romance movie. She was lying in the arms of her lover. Listening to his soft breathing as his chest rose and fell with sleep. No, her life no longer felt like that movie anymore, it felt like a dream she didn't want to wake up from. It felt like a poem she never wanted to stop reading. It felt like home, it felt like Calum.

[aliypop]

Beauty Has Her Ways ( Prt 2)

Word count : 1, 286

Warning: Language

A/N : I made a part 2 For Angelica I hope you guys like it

"Nothing, you're half of us ... half of..." 

"Who's this kid..." Tiffany looked at her, as her eyes then went wide from her scent. Another part of her that she knew nothing about, 

"Are you my..."

"Sister..." Angelica backed into Marko, who looked down at her and smirked. Her face nearly looked paler than even Tiffany's as fear washed over her. "That's just great..." Sam mumbled under his breath as David glared at him. "Sorry..." Tiffany began to circle the shorter young woman lifting her face examining her features, "Same eyes... Same curls." Tiffany laughed harder, 

"Holy shit, I have a sister...What's your name, kiddo..." 

"An... An..., Angelica."

"It's okay: I won't hurt you..." Tiffany said, her hand on top of her sisters, "But I wanna know everything about you. Est-ce que tu es d'accord?"

 Angelica only nodded as she was a bit frightened, still everything: was so odd to her. From the cave itself to the boys surrounding her.  "By any chance, did they scare you..." Tiffany asked, watching as the boys all straightened up, Marko looking away watching as she nodded. "Forgive their manors, for they pretend as if they don't have any!" Tiffany glared, 

"Michael..." 

"What's wrong, Tiff..." 

"Your break ended three hours ago..." She winked. 

As both sisters moved further into the cave, there in front of them was Tiffany's nest. 1920's headboard along with the remaining curtains from the hotel with pictures from her past surrounding her. It was almost as if her bedroom belonged somewhere that wasn't here.  "Welcome to my humble room, little pest." Tiffany flopped on her bed, tossing her jacket across her desk. Angelica, who later sat on the floor, looked up as she saw a necklace hanging off a broken branch of her chandelier. 

"So Mon Cherie, tell me about yourself...Where are you from?" 

"I lived here all my life... I don't know much else but Santa Carla..." Angelica began to fidget a bit, playing with her hair. "Mom was cool... Dad, I only saw at night..." she laughed, "He talked in this funny southern accent, but he's cool. ``She laughed, "He speaks french just like you, and you kinda look like him pretty crazy, huh..." Angelica looked up at Tiffany, who only nodded, 

"So where do you live ..."  she asked Angelica. 

"We live in a house in the Suburbs mom likes gardening... You'd like it a lot, Tiff-"

"Do they talk about me?" the vampire jolted up from her bed, "Do they talk about why they sent me to New Orleans... Or had me turned into ..." 

"Into a what..." 

"You're too young to understand..."Tiffany sighed, "Hey, it's getting late, and I should take you home." she smiled, grabbing the keys to her motorcycle as she put her leather jacket on. David sat in his wheelchair throne as Marko pushed him around the main cave. Dwayne, who was next to Paul, watched Tiffany like a hawk. "I'll be back, don't worry about me, baby..." Tiffany kissed Dwayne's forehead while Angelica watched in awe.

"Is that your boyfriend..." 

"Just get on the bike." Tiffany let out a laugh. 

"Well, is he..." She swung her leg over and sat down. "He's one of my boyfriends," she smirked as they rode off into the suburbs. As the sounds of waves crashing against the water, Tiffany couldn't help but wonder what her parents would think, would they want to see her again or perhaps even talk, or maybe they would have aged. Her dark eyeliner under her eyes no longer there as she tried to present herself in a less threatening way,  

It was the sweet, simplistic American country club suburbia. 

"Welp, Kiddo, you have a safe ni-,"

"Angelica DuBois, where have you been!" a woman who had dark hair in a style that she swore Whitney Huston once wore ran out the front door. "And you're staying with Strangers... " 

"Mom, Sam isn't a stranger, if anything, he's a guy I li-" 

"Like!" Both Tiffany and Isabella said at the same time. Looking up at each other, Tiffany felt her skin grow colder as the eyes that were peering at her were those of her "Mother... " she held her hand on her necklace, 

"I haven't seen you since... "

"Since 1776..." Tiffany looked down, "And 1791... When you died..." she laughed.

"I'm sorry, but what's going on..." Angelica questioned. 

"Go inside... your fathers gonna have a talking to with you, young lady..."

"You never let me know anything!"

"ANGELICA G-"

"We're Vampires... and one day you will be too... " Tiffany shrugged. her mother pinched both girls by the ears, 

"Nice going ..." 

"What did I do..."  Tiffany asked, "You got us grounded by dad..."  As they were both dropped in front of a taller man Tiffany only groaned,

 Ashton, who resembled the face of a Duke in an area called Bridgerton,

" Angelica, go to your..." His brown eyes looking back at ones that resembled his, Angelica scurried upstairs, leaving the two downstairs. 

"Tiffany DuBois ma douce fille..." he kissed her forehead as she pushed him away.  "Je ne suis plus une fille you missed those years..." she laughed, pushing past him as she plopped on the couch. "Who the hell is DuBois..." she then asked, 

"It's your last name..." 

"Countess Liru named me Monroe..." She mumbled under her breath, "It's always been, Monroe..." 

"Now it's back to DuBois." he took her head in his hand, reading her thoughts, "A cave... My daughter lives in a..." 

"It was the Santa Carla resort until the big Earthquake of 1906, and now it belongs to..." 

"The one that Vlad owned..." 

"Yes, that one..." she sighed, "Now if you excuse me, I gotta get ba-" Tiffany looked around as she was in a bedroom already dressed in a 50's negligé that she assumed was her mother's. The room was like any standard 80's teen room, posters, a usual bed, a window seat, and a desk. "You know, Tiffany, it's not so bad here..."  Angelica said from the door frame in her Ghostbusters pajamas.  Tiffany giggled as she looked over,

 "You've known them all your life. I wasn't lucky..." she ran her fingers through her curls, already missing the touch of David and Dwayne, 

"So, they're our blood." 

"Blood doesn't mean shit, besides. It only makes for a tasty late-night snack." Tiffany snapped, "Look, those boys you met, Dwayne, Paul, David, Marko, that's my family." she smiled, "We've had each other's backs since 1906..." she whistled, 

"Must've been hard..." 

"What..."

"Becoming a Vampire..." She mumbled, " I didn't think they were real until..."  Angelica began to shake, "Until what..." 

"One tried to eat me..." 

"Damn it, Marko..."  she mumbled under her breath, "Well, Listen, kiddo, if you ever wanna talk about the vamp stuff. You can meet me at the record shop."

"Promise..." 

"Promise now go to sleep or something..." Angelica rolled her eyes as she walked to her room. Sitting in the window made Tiffany feel like a cat in a cage. As she opened the window, she could almost feel her undead life start to change. 

"You ready to go..."

"How'd you find me?" Tiffany asked, watching Dwayne float, " Your scent..." he smirked, watching Tiffany shivered, putting his jacket on her shoulders, scooping her in his arms. Dwayne had a smile on his face,  

" You know I can fly." 

"I wanna make David a little jealous." 

"So then I found out she was a vampire Sam, a Vampire! and I might be one too..."  Angelica gasped as she sat in her work uniform with Sam, 

"My brothers a half-vampire, so that's not too crazy." he laughed, holding her hand. 

"Hey, Emerson, hands off my sister!"

[bebewheezy]

Vice Kings

It’s Always Been You- Part 1

Notes: hi guys! my friend eesha has an obsession with gangs & mafias & calum hood so this series is dedicated to her :)

word count:  1591

TW: mentions of sex, violence, blood

part two

“Hey what about that guy you were talking to at the party yesterday?” Rosalie shifted our conversation despite my dismay as we gossiped on the plush couch in the living room of our safe house.

“I wasn’t talking to him, he was an assassin and he mistakenly thought I was his target,” I snarkily replied and smacked the leg resting on mine.

“Still cute though,” She laughed back and threw a pillow at my face.

“Oh yeah, almost being shot in the fucking head really makes me want to sleep with a guy,” I began to laugh with her. “Would you please stop trying to set me up? You’re awful at it.”

“I am not! You’re just too picky with men.”

Right when Rosie finished speaking, in walked Spencer, our head assassin. Her bleach blonde hair was pulled into a loose braid on her head, and her soft features look tired. Rosie and I hadn’t been initiated into the Vice Kings yet, and Spencer was handing a majority of our arrangements, along with the handful of other bright-eyed and innocent teens looking for a family they never had. I wasn’t exactly the most innocent of the new recruits, I’d been around gangs and violence before I even went through puberty, but I was still scared beyond belief.

Rosie and I were really the only family either of us had anymore. My mom had died while I was still in diapers, shot by an MS-13 member wanting revenge on my dad, and he abandoned my elder sister and me the minute she was able to get a job. We bounced around living with relatives for a few months before finally settling with our grandma.  While I tried to start doing better in school and focus on my future, my sister couldn’t get out of the horrible violent scene she was dragged into by our father. 

The guys she dated in high school were all gang members, or were somehow associated with one, and it wasn’t much of a surprise to me when she joined Calle 18 straight after graduation. Our grandma on the other hand, was devastated. She witnessed first hand what being in a gang did to our father, and our family, but my sister felt like she had no other option besides joining, her grades were shit and she didn’t have a stable job. I haven’t spoken to her in almost three years, and as I sat on the maroon fluffy couch with my only friend, I couldn’t help but think of her and how my life got to this point.

“The last few guys that were out on an assignment are going to be back sometime today, that means all members will be present and tomorrow is the first initiation. Are you two ready?” Spencer said to us as she sat down on the chair ahead of us.

“I think so, yeah,” Rosie said in a delicate voice as her green eyes looked to our mentor of sorts.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I sighed.

“There’s no going back after this, so I want you both to spend the rest of the night relaxing so you don’t break down tomorrow in front of everyone. You’ll be given two options: jump-in or sexed-in. Jumped-in is exactly what it sounds like, you’ll be beaten by as many members who chose to beat you, for around fifteen minutes, if you survive then the initiation process will be continued. Sexed-in means you chose to have fuck one of the higher ranking men instead of being kicked in the stomach a multitude of times, but it can sometimes lead to the men here not respecting you,” Spencer explained to us. I knew what being jumped-in looked like, and I didn’t have any plans on dying just for protection from a group of criminals I had little to no respect for.

“Which did you choose?” I asked.

“Considering I have the rank that I am today, I was jumped-in. I joined when I was sixteen and I hadn’t even kissed a boy yet, but I had been in enough fights to know that I could handle a beating,” She smugly commented.

The front door adjacent to us burst open, and four large men walked in, soaked to the bone due to the raging thunderstorm going on, followed by some of the guys who were being initiated with Rosie and myself tomorrow.

“Jesus fuck, what took you so long to get back, Calum?” Spencer’s head whipped around to glare at them. I didn’t recognize any of them, but then again there were a lot of members I hadn’t met or even seen before.

“We’re starting initiations tonight,” He spoke bluntly while he tore off his wet leather jacket. “Tell the kids to meet in the front courtyard by ten o’clock sharp.”

“Initiations start tomorrow, Sniper. Half of them are already in bed, I’m not waking them up just because you have a craving for blood at the moment. It can wait until tomorrow,” Spencer rose from her seat in the chair in front of us, seemingly done with the conversation.

“These are direct orders from Vice, not just my urge to kill someone,” Calum snapped as a sly smirk crept its way to his face.

“Fine, but you have to help me wake all the fucking recruits up.”

*****

I stood next to Rosie outside the massive safe house in our poor excuse for rain gear as it continued to storm. I currently hated our gang leader who we knew as Vice, and the mountain of a man named Calum who seemed to be leading the initiations tonight. It had to be at most fifty-five degrees and I was beginning to shiver, even huddled against Rosie and a handful of other girls.

“Alright, tonight we’re starting with the boys,” Calum yelled over the sound of the storm. “Since they don’t get a choice of initiation, and tomorrow we’ll take care of the girls. You’ve lucked out tonight, due to the rain we only have four members who are partaking in the rite, so hopefully most of you pussies will survive it. Those of you who pass, will continue tomorrow with the formalities and getting your streaks. Ashton, Byron, Adryan and I will be jumping you in. First group, you’re up, proceed to the square.”

I could hardly make out “the square” Calum was referring to in the rain. I wasn’t looking forward to watching seven guys get their shit handed to them without any way to stop it or fight back, they had to lie on the ground for fifteen minutes and take any hits that the four grown men deemed necessary for initiation. I didn’t understand why members volunteered to do this, it seemed sociopathic to me. Spencer guided my small group more towards the awning closest to us to shield from the cold rain, but it wasn’t the wind that was chilling me to my bones, it was the scene that had just broken out in front of me.

Ashton threw the first punch, hitting the tallest kid right on his cheekbone and knocking him backwards. I figured with four against seven, it would be difficult for the official members to properly jump them all, but I couldn’t be more wrong. Calum and Ashton were working almost as a tag team, one would throw some punches at one boy, then they would switch. Byron and Adryan had two already hunched over and bleeding on the slate tiles of the driveway, and went to help make the others fall. 

The bloody beating continued on for what felt like an eternity, I eventually couldn’t stomach to watch any longer, and squeezed my eyes as tight as they could go. I wasn’t sure how long it had been, until I felt a tight grip on my jaw yanking my head up. I opened my eyes only to meet the deep chocolate ones of one of the men I feared the most in that moment, Calum. They were filled with fire, adrenaline and what I thought to be a slight hint of lust, but I pushed the thoughts of him getting off seeing others in pain, pain that he caused,  to the back of my mind.

“Keep your eyes open, princess, if you can’t handle seeing a little blood you won’t make it past tomorrow alive,” He snarled in my face as hot tears mixed with the rain on my cheeks. “Group two, you’re up.”

My jaw was tainted in blood from where his warm hand held it. I couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down my face, but at this point I didn’t want to. As I knelt on the ground trying to regain my composure, I could only think of one thing: I was not choosing to get jumped tomorrow, which only gave me one other choice. I was going to have to have sex with one of the men I could barely gain enough courage to look at. My tears quickly turned into sobs, and Rosalie crouched down beside me to try and calm the crying.

“Spencer, I don’t think Y/N is doing very well, can I take her inside?” She asked.

“Yeah, just do it quickly so Calum or Ashton don’t see. If they do, she’ll be thrown in there and they won’t care if that’s how she wanted to be initiated or not.”

Rosie pulled me off the tile and was escorting me inside as fast as her little body could carry me.

[ashfantasyworld]

Ashton

It was the start of me falling for everyone, it was like any other day. I had turned 20 years of age, and had become what we consider in the middle of teens. My tail never does as I want it to, when I try to hide things or feelings. It always blows my cover, and in training I have started to flirt with this good looking human. I seriously melt when I see him, but how the hell do I tell another guy I like him. What if he dont like me? I know I'm ranting now but it's important I promise. I failed him and I failed my Mom, I failed everyone. As I'm writing this letter I am sitting in a cell waiting for the cultists to end me for being unholy. They call me, well I hope someone reads this as i think i will die today. And yes I'm crying. I can't help it. I'm still a kid, well let me tell you my story then. So if you read it you wont be as stupid as i was.

The start of the story is on my 18th birthday, my mom who cares for me alone had made me a cake. And I was eating it with her, as she told me of my dad, and how the humans had come. And I was a mix of Human and Tabaxi and so on, she misses my dad a lot after he died. So she talks about him on a regular basis, but it's okay if she is happy doing so I don't mind listening to it. And well I had plans today to meet up with a guy that looks amazing, and well we have exchanged looks sometimes and he is going to meet me tonight. But I need to train first. I aint so big on using close combat weapons. I rather like to use bows and crossbows but if i can i like to talk my way out of things. So I use most of my day for training, as a tabaxi I have to be combat ready when I'm around 18 to 20 so yeah. When I'm done with my work out I walk to take a shower and damn that's a long process. Have you tried to get fur dry?It's a nightmare. So when I'm done with my 3 hour long chore of showering for 30 min and using 2h 30 min to not smell like a wet dog. Ewww dogs….. It's time to meet up with Thor, it's night now and I have become smaller than what I was. It happens every night. I think it's due to my father and since he was not a cat, I am probably cursed. Thor doesn't mind, he finds it kinda cute, we are going to meet up by the hill so we can watch the stars together. I walk up there with ease as well. I'm a cat and move easily, not like dogs who walk all over the place sniffing pee. So I sit and wait for him, he is so slow I mean I can wait. I remember seeing him walking in, he looked so good. He has a nice beard and looks like something from a story book from the people up north, he sits down beside me. I can feel my heart beating out of my chest, and he asks me “what I think is up there”. I think a lot and look up, before I'm reminded of all the stories from my mom about dad. “I think my dad is up there watching over me, keeping me safe”. I can feel his hand touching mine, I tell him “that's okay, i feel the same for him”. He pushes me to the ground so I'm on my back, and kisses me. He sits back up and looks at me, I smile and move and kiss him back. It feels wonderful. I feel warm all over and I'm so happy. We smile and part ways after a while, I am so happy I am falling so hard for him. Everything was so good before I failed him.

Some days pass and well we meet up, hidden from everyone else. He decides that we should keep it hidden from everyone, and that's fine for me. He has become more bossy with me, and makes my decisions for me. But that's okay. I am kinda girly anyways, and I like to have someone in control of me. And well im 4*10 120 lbs so I'm small, and I dress kinda cute. So I am not someone who is in charge, It makes me smile just to think of Thor, my big viking. 

But one day I decided I don't know why but that i wanted to be in a dress for him you know female dress. They look so nice, and damn cute and I have the body to be in one. So stupid as i was i got one to be cute to him, my Mom told me i was always special and thats what she loved about me. And helped me get the dress on, we had to cut a hole for the tail tho. As that damn tail always got in the way, but we did and it looked kinda good. So I went to where I knew Thor usually did hang out. I went there and it did not go so well, as his friends were there and when they saw me. They called me alot, “Abomination, Little girl, Loser, ugly”. You know all the bad words, and Thor even made fun of me, and when I tried to run they caught me. And started to beat me up, I don't remember too much as it got black quickly. What I do remember though is Thor hitting me in my face with his friends. I did wake up later. My dress was bloody and ripped apart, I started to cry and ran to the spot where me and Thor first met. And sitting down made me even more sad, as I remembered him. I cried for a long time, before Thor walked up to me and sat down beside me. He told me it was my fault, and I said sorry so many times. He agreed to be with me if I did not behave like that ever again and made it up to him. It made me so happy I kissed his cheek and asked what he wanted, he said I had to get something for him from the smithy. When I asked what he smiled and said a special sword from the smithy, I agreed I just had to get that and he would be mine. I did not have any money though as i know he just wanted a gift, like i am supposed to give him. So i had to steal it, i said i would be back here in 3 hours to him with the sword. It was still night so I could get it, he smiled as I ran off, I know I can do it for him. I'm so lucky to get another chance after embracing him like that. When I'm at the smithy I manage to sneak my way over the fence, but then I see it. The terror itself, the thing that could be compared with the devil himself. Ewwww a small dog, it even looks like a rat. I was close to throwing up in my mouth, and now I have to touch it. I am sure I was close to dying right there and then. But for Thor I would, so I grabbed the dog. Made my skin crawl, as I held over its tiny mouth it started to lick me. I know how disgusting, that tongue has probs been licking buts and poop and pee and ewwwwwwww. But I did it, I moved the dog carefully to another place as it kept licking me all the way. Gives me even the shivers now as I write this while crying, but I move it far enough away. So I could sneak back in, and well when people are stupid enough to let a window be open, I mean it's like an open invitation. I stop and look at the Female sleeping, she is so cute she is older than me tho, must be like 25 to 30 in human years. But I have a mission, so I go and look at the swords. I'm not sure which he wants so I take the most fancy look, and move to the window. But stop looking at the girl. I feel bad for her. I will make it up to her, but I have to leave. So I leave and run back to Thor he smiles, as I give it to him, I feel so happy for giving it to him now he wants me back. He looks at me and hits me in the face with the back end of it, and pushes me to the ground and keeps beating me. Screaming at me how stupid i am for taking the wrong sword, I try to say sorry and that i love him in between the hits. But he dont stop, he keeps on beating me for a while. I deserve it though. I failed him, how could i be so stupid. 

After a while he stopped and looked at me with piercing eyes, “you failed me” the words kept ringing in my ears. As he walked off with the sword I had stolen from him, I walked home. My mom saw me beaten and bloody. She looks at me and shakes her head, “i am sorry” she smiles and follows me into the bathroom and finds some bandages and ointments to help with my wounds. She spends most of the evening cleaning me up, and treating me, I don't say much at all that night. My head is spinning around, everything that has happened. I slept for almost 2 days. Before someone comes knocking on the door at my house, my mom opens and asks me to come into the living room. I just put the comforter over my head, I do not want to do anything right now. After a good 10 minutes the lady comes into the room, the smith stares at me as I swallow hard. She closes the door behind me and we have a conversation, she told me that stealing is not okay. And doing so could get me killed. She offers me a job to work off what I owe, she says she had one give her a chance once and this was her doing the same. But if I was late or did not show, she would go to the guards. I started working with her smithy. Her name is Cynthia, she was not too pleased with me at the start, but after 6 months of me working there every day. She starts to take a liking to me, and teaches me about hard work. I have not heard from Thor in half a year, and I'm finally starting to get over him. Everyday I meet up, I do most of the labour around the smith like cleaning up and keeping it tidy. As I see her sell things to people and make deals, I smirk and one day I say to her. “Bet i could make more money off it” she smirks and tells me the bet is on i have 1 month to beat her. Every day I do everything I can to sell, I start playing music outside and to lure people in I let them haggle but manage to turn them around. After the month is over I have made 1276 gold 436 more than she made, I smirk and she smiles and tells me I have worked off all my debt. But I don't want to stop working. I ask her if I can continue, and she accepts with a smile. Another year passes. I'm 19 soon, 20 now and I am happy. My life's going great, I have worked with Cynthia and have been helping me alot with my bow skills and I continue to play music. She even managed to get me into playing in an inn every night, and I love it and the people love it. One day a guard walks into the smith, I freeze up as I see him. It's Thor. He is looking at swords. I gulp as he turns around and sees me too, “well well well”. He puts a sword on the table, “so you work here now” I look at him and swallow hard and nod. “That will be 50 gold coins”, he smiles and reminds me of what i did and threatens me. Before he takes it and leaves, which means I have to pay for it. I put 50 gold coins into the chest. Cynthia has seen it all, and we have a talk. I tell her the whole story, she hugs me. And tells me that we will just forget about it, and that it's not worth picking a fight with the guards over it. Another 6 months pass, as I work and people start to know me, and come alot into the smith it has become a place to hang out for some people. Where they can chat and buy stuff. I have turned 20 now, it's a big day and as I get to work. The guard jumps me and chains me down, Thor is standing there and reading up my accusations of being a thief, breaking the rules of the church and deserves to hang. Cynthia looks at me, and tries to talk her way out of it for me, but Thor is not budging. And they take me to the church, after a while the priest comes. They decide to take me to the caves where they can properly please the gods, they move me at night. And get me into this cell, they are not holy they are a cult. Planning to sacrifice me to their gods, they told me that my mom has been tossed out on the streets and Cynthia is facing charges. So that brings me to the end of my letter, of how I failed everyone. Just never do as I did, because of me people are hurt. I am sorry for getting the wrong sword, I am sorry mom for being a useless son and I'm sorry Cynthia you should never have given me a chance. I am ready now, to pay for my sins. This will be updated as the campaing goes on <3

[littleredroseonthevalley]

Land of the Blind

Summary: Nathan is caugh on a DUI and is sentenced to comunity service. There, he meets someone who can change his life.

Rating: T - Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.

Words: 5400

Notes: So, Natey-boy again. Who hasn’t gotten over him yet?

בשוק סמייא צווחין לעווירא סגי נהור

In the street of the blind, the one-eyed man is called the Guiding Light

*_*_*_*_*

"Nathan Sterling! Come over here, bro!" Beau Han bellowed, causing several heads in the party to turn, but he remained uncaring, as he went on to wave his bottle of beer as a half-hearted greeting.

Nathan sighed, shaking his head in frustration at the closest thing he could call as best friend. His boorish antics got old fast, and he had to take them for years now. However, it did not keep the young, blond man to slip into the seat next to him and grabbing a bottle of beer.

They had met in college, when they pledged the same fraternity. They both came from privileged upbringings, with the difference that Beau was nouveau riche, while Nathan was a Boston Brahmin. The Asian boy, because of that, submitted himself to be his faithful lapdog, and he did not care for the difference between that and “true friendship”.

"Anything fun going on around here?" Nathan asked, unamused.

Beau gave a casual shrug, before pulling a face. "No hot girls are allowed here, apparently."

He craned his neck then, as if looking for something. Nathan frowned, opening his mouth to question him when Beau beat him to it. "Eh, Nathan? Where's Becca? I thought she was your conquest for the week?"

Nathan flicked his finger dismissively, before downing the bottle of beer. The voluptuous girl was not bad-looking, on the contrary, but she really was just really bossy and nagging, and her name was tarnished since her parents divorced and cut her off, it was no fun.

Not to mention, she wanted commitment, too. She wanted to raise herself from the filth she was thrown in. It was a big no-no for Nathan. He did not, under any circumstances, do commitments. Anytime a girl seemed to imply that, she was out. Especially the social-climbers.

"She's old news already, Beau.” He responded, lazily. “I can't seem to find anyone else up to my standards."

"Your standards must be reaching heaven, my dear friend." Beau shook his head as he chugged his beer, before wiping the corner of his mouth to clean himself of the trail of white booze. "I'm pretty sure dear Katie would be glad to lecture you again."

Nathan sighed, shaking his head. Katie was the exact reason why he is so averse to commitment. She was his cousin’s wife, daughter of a fisherman from down at the harbour, and seemed to think they were a loving family just because they were around the same age. She firmly believed in love and that Tanner was her One and Only.

To him, it all sound either naïve or malicious. She knew he was cheating on her with the Emersons’ slag, Scarlett, but she took it because parting with the Sterling fortune was too much to bear. Not that she will ever really have to, having birthed a daughter already.

He almost scoffed at just the mere idea of fairy-tale love. Pick any marriage on his lineage, from the very day the first member of his family set foot in America hailing from Norway, and they would be a good example that love did not exist. Including Kate and Tanner’s.

“She can’t lecture me if she doesn’t know, and evidence shows it isn’t that hard to hide things from her. She is pretty stupid.”

"Damn, you're bad!" Beau chuckled heartily before pulling Nathan up from his seat, gesturing to the platform set up for the party. "Let's go dance, and maybe pick up some hot girls, yeah?"

The corner of Nathan's mouth lifted slightly. Yes, that was exactly what he needed.

"Yeah, you're on."

*_*_*_*_*

"Nathan, you honestly shouldn't… " Beau stopped in the middle of the sentence, hiccupping for probably the umpteenth time. "Drive the car in such a state. You might get into an accident."

"Shut up, Beau, unless you’d like to walk." Nathan threatened. He was sure that he could handle liquor well, Beau was totally underestimating him. "I'm pretty sure you're the one who needs help getting home. Whose party is this again? Elliott's? I'm sure he'll be glad to drive you home."

"Yes, see that horn over there?" Beau hiccupped again, before chuckling and pointing at the roof of the house. "It’s Elliott's!"

"Damn, Beau, you are drunk." Nathan shook his head. Beau really seem like a stupid teenager at times. He muffled a sigh. “Call yourself an Uber. I know you like to spite your mother.”

"No need. Beau's going home with me." A familiar voice stated from behind the said male's bulky form.

Nathan's eyes widen by the tiniest bit, before he recovered, trying not to laugh. Trying to make him jealous? With Han? How quaint. Too bad it would not work.

"Oh, alright then." Nathan said, grinning as he saw his friend's face morphed into one of horror's, but he paid him no heed. He was apparently still sober enough to realize what he was getting into. "Have a nice night, Claire."

Without another word, he silently washed his hands from Han before he slipped into his Ashton Martin and sped off. The adrenaline was coursing through his veins, most probably a side effect from the consumption of beer. It had actually been a while since he had gone home with a girl, and for this moment, this silence was actually rather nice and peaceful.

He took a deep breath before he relaxed against his comfortable leather seat.

The sirens of police cars suddenly broke him out of his reverie, and he immediately swerved to a stop in an unconscious move.

Ugh, Nathan, you moron! What did you stop for?

He suppressed his grumbles as he rolled down the window of his car to come face-to-face to Officer Silverhawk. He muttered a curse under his breath. Of all people... Of all days...

"Good evening, Officer Silverhawk." He greeted grudgingly.

"Yes, Nathan." She sounded displeased. "What're you doing out here that late at night? Is that alcohol? You reek of it!"

"No, of course not, ma’am." Nathan lied smoothly. "I wouldn't do such a dangerous, reckless thing."

“You certainly would.” She said, unbelieving. “Give me your keys. I’ll pull up your record.”

"Don’t get your panties on a twist, Officer Silverhawk." He muttered.

Officer Silverhawk looked up from scrolling through the records at the mention of her name, but Nathan waved his hand like it was nothing.

"Well, Nathan…" She said, sounding gruff. "It's not the first time you've been caught speeding. In fact, this is the fifteenth time, and there's another few which was after consuming alcohol."

Again, shit.

"Well, I'm afraid you'd have to go to the police with us. Don't worry, you will most likely just have to serve community service if it comes to that." Chief Silverhawk seemed to meant for her to sound reassuring.

However, she seemed smug and Nathan noted irritably that her upper lip seemed to twitch slightly at that comment.

Fuck was the only thought echoing through his mind. His parents were going to kill him.

*_*_*_*_*

“You are a disgrace, Mr. Sterling. You are a smudge on this town prideful tradition, and a shame to your surname.” Judge Rhodes said, sternly, from his bench. “I am very glad that I was able to shield my stepdaughter from the likes of you.”

Nathan used much of his willpower not to roll his eyes at that comment. Judge Rhodes was obsessed with his wife and stepdaughter, to the point it was nauseating.

The man congratulate himself into making a “safe” town for his family to live, as if he would ever be interested in Emily Harper. She was a very creepy character, and he is not alone in thinking that. Yes, she was his neighbour, but they just never interacted anymore.

He could remember that, before Queenie Harper married Dr. Rhodes, before even Evan Harper died of a heart attack, him and Emily would spend a lot of time together. Mrs. Harper would have him on their home to relieve his nannies, and the two kids would spend the Summer afternoons together.

Over Winter, while he was away in New Haven with his parents, however, Mr. Harper passed away and Queenie moved away with Emily to God knows where. They returned years later, when the old bat had already remarried, conveniently, with the new county judge.

Every time he sees her, which was actually quite rare, she would be wearing a long dress and she would be wearing a sunglass with Zigmund Ortega, if he remembered correctly, the felon son of their housemaid, or with either of her parents by her side.

“I would prefer to send you away for a month at the county jail. That ought to straighten you out. However, the laws of the state of Massachusetts do not allow me.” The judge continued, doling out the punishment. “Therefore, I hereby sentence you, Nathan Sterling, III, to ten weeks of community service. I really hope this would be of help to your behaviour."

The gavel went down, he was taken away from the courtroom to where his family was restlessly waiting, no doubt anxious to give him a piece of their mind. He almost wished that Rhodes had locked him away.

“A DUI, Nathan, honestly.” Lois Sterling, his mother, admonishes coldly. “Why don’t you just piss on your great-grandfather’s statue at main square while you’re on it, huh?”

He limits himself to a glare. His mother really knows how to make a bad situation worse just by standing in the room.

His father, in turn, merely sighed, patting Nathan's stiff shoulder. "Learn something there, son."

"Nathan, you're an idiot. I swear, you are!" Katie huffed, looking very much like an angry poodle dog. "But I really feel like something good may come out of this whole mess, so don't go messing things up."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever you want, Cinderella."

All he got was an answering smack.

*_*_*_*_*

"Well, now what am I supposed to do?" Nathan asked, refraining from groaning as he looked at the peeling layers of wallpaper in the room of the orphanage.

The matron of the establishment narrowed her beady, black eyes at him, as if threatening him, before she pushed the grey bun on her head up higher. He stared at it for a moment, fascinated, before turning to face her. "I'm sorry, Ms..."

"Mrs. Higginbotham." She snapped, her lips twisting to a grimace. "You weren't listening."

"I'm sorry." He shuffled his feet and stared at them for a moment, trying to deceive her into thinking he was feeling guilty, which he obviously was not.

She released a sigh. "It's alright, boy."

Some people just were so easy to deceive. Most people, in fact, were easily thwarted by him. Call it a congenic trait.

The older woman motioned for the wall. "You need to peel of the wallpaper of this entire room before repainting it. A few older children will be coming in to help you out later, so don't worry about the workload."

He nodded.

She mimicked his movements, looking satisfied before leaving him with the appropriate tools.

He sighed, pulling his sleeves up and dreading the loss of a shirt. "Better get to work now, I guess."

"Hello!" A cheery voice disrupted his concentration, and he turned to face her after scraping off the last peeling layer of white from the ceiling.

What he saw was an assorted group of approximately thirteen-year-old teens standing there and looking at him. He fought back a grimace, before he raised his hand in an awkward wave.

"Uh, hi?"

"We heard you were here to serve your sentence." One of the boys blurted out.

The boy beside him smacked him.

"Not a sentence, Nicky. That's such an exaggeration!" He paused, before giving Nathan a curious look. "Or is it?"

"Alright, boys." A girl who was obviously the leader of the group of five stepped out, holding her palms up for silence. "Enough. We are here to help."

The two boys bowed their heads in resignation. "Sorry, Vanessa."

She nodded her head in satisfaction before turning her attention to the gaping Nathan. "What do you need help with, sir?"

"The scraping of wallpaper at the rest of the walls, I guess. I already did the ceiling. Then we can paint this room." He replied after recovering quickly. "And don't call me 'sir', please. It makes me sound old."

Vanessa grinned.

"Okay. Let's get to work then!"

This kid must be something to control them like that. Blonde curly hair, bright blue eyes, clearly a strong-willed kid. Had not been for the crude demeanour of her posture, one would say they were siblings. He found he rather liked her.

A few minutes after they started work, Nicky, if he remembered correctly, suddenly asked. "Brad, aren't you looking forward to the afternoon?"

The boy who smacked Nicky turned, his eyes bright as a cheeky smile surfaced, accidently scratching the wall with his tool in his carelessness, but he paid it no heed.

"Like, duh! Emmy is coming!"

"Emmy?" Nathan could not help himself from asking.

All eyes in the room turned to look at him, looking shocked before exclaiming in unison, "You don't know who's Emmy?"

“No, not really.” He responded.

“Emily Harper.” Vanessa supplied, helpfully. “She’s a voluntary teacher here. The kids that have been here the longest call her Emmy.”

“Oh! She’s my next-door neighbour.” He gasped in recognition. "Um, well, we’ve met, years ago, but we’re not close anymore. She's kind of... I don't know… "

He tried to untangle himself out of the situation, noticing how everyone seemed to stiffen at his words.

"You're one of those creeps who look down on her, right?" Nicky yelled, his face red with anger as he fisted his hands, stepping forward and looking as if he was about to hit him.

"Nicky." Vanessa's soft voice stopped him, and he bit his lip before muttering an apology.

"I'm sorry, Nathan, we're rather protective when it comes to Emily." She managed a smile. "I sure hope you aren't one of those who look down on her. She is a lovely person. She really brightens up our day."

He smiled back, unsure of what reply to give.

After that exchange, the room's atmosphere seemed to escalate to a freezing region, where everyone talked among themselves, occasionally only speaking to Nathan when they need to.

It seemed hours to him before Mrs. Higginbotham came, looking very pleased with their progress. "Well, you are almost done, ain't ya?"

All the teens nodded their heads eagerly, excluding Nathan.

"Well, I suppose you all can go for your break." She turned to leave before she angled her face back to face them once more, a twinkle in her eye. "By the way, Ms. Harper has arrived."

It was a moment after she left, before all the children threw down their tools and dashed out, pushing against each other as they stumbled along the corridor. Nathan blinked once in bewilderment, before he decided not to follow.

He continued working on his part of the room for a few more minutes, before his stomach growled. He bit the inside of his cheeks, before resigning. Now, he would have to find the canteen by himself.

How pathetic. Why did he have to stop his car when Officer Silverhawk signalled him to? Walsh would never let her come after him, anyways. There were so many better ways to spend his precious time, to the point he is willing to go work with his father.

Pulling the towel off his neck, he jumped down from the stool before trudging out of the room. The county orphanage could not be that big; he was sure of it. It should not be too hard to find the canteen.

He yawned, rubbing his eyes. This work really was exhausting.

As he walked down the hallway, commiserating with himself, a beautiful melody drifted to his ears then, and he immediately perked up. Someone was playing the violin, and that person was really good at it, too.

Unknowingly, his feet followed the source of the music, and he stopped in front of a door at last.

Placing his hand on the doorknob, he debated for a while whether he should go in or just leave it be. But the curiosity of knowing who was inside overwhelmed him, and he twisted the knob as softly as he could before he poked his head to the room.

A redhead with long, flowing curly hair tumbling down to her waist was on the middle of a mostly empty room, holding the instrument. She was wearing a white floral dress that reached over her knees. He watched, transfixed as her fingers danced over the strings, her eyes closed and her full lips in a concentrated pout.

"Nathan?" Mrs. Higginbotham's voice broke him out of his entranced stare.

The music abruptly got cut off and the girl turned to face him. His jaw almost fell to the ground.

"E-Emily?" He managed to get out.

She smiled a breath-taking smile, standing up from her seat, her eyes still closed as she tilted her head to the side for a moment.

"Hi, Nathan."

"Hi?" But it sounded more like a question. The beautiful girl playing the violin just now... Was actually Emily Harper? The ghost of Birchport? The bratty child of the county judge?

He swallowed, watching as her long, elegant fingers pressed against her full, red lips, looking embarrassed.

"Did you hear me play?" She asked, a soft stutter on her words.

"I did. It was beautiful." He breathed, still looking utterly entranced, his emerald green eyes lighting up as they stared at her.

Red coloured both her cheeks as she fidgeted even more, seeming to feel the weight of his stare. "Thank you, you’re too kind."

Suddenly, someone coughed in the room, and Nathan realized they were not alone. The entire roomful of teens and children and Mrs. Higginbotham were looking at him, seemingly in amusement and curiosity.

"New brother!" One of the younger kids squealed before clapping his hands together, looking very happy.

Nathan stared at them with a completely bewildered expression.

"Well, Nathan, how nice of you to join us." Mrs. Higginbotham said, motioning for him to take a seat and snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Thank you, Mrs. Higginbotham."

"Sorry, Nathan. I really thought you were one of those creeps who look down on Emmy." Nicky whispered to him from in front and Nathan tilted his head to the side. Why would anyone look down on her? She was beautiful, and she played such beautiful music.

Before he could ask, though, Emily had already picked up her instrument and placed on her neck, measuring the tempo for a new song. She seemed tense now, her fingers stiff. Was it because of his presence?

He wondered about it, before shaking it off. Impossible.

Her first note was slightly shaky, before it was followed by a firmer tone. As she continued on, her confidence began to grow and the music slowly crawled to a crescendo, her fingers flying over the strings.

He could not help but gape. She was the epitome of beauty and class. Maybe she would be deserving to be his next conquest.

"Beautiful, isn't she?" Mrs. Higginbotham murmured from beside him.

He nodded, not speaking, transfixed by the song.

"You can't even tell that she's blind." She said softly and Nathan whirled to face her in shock.

"What?"

"Why, yes, Nathan. She's blind." She said, a little surprised. “I thought you knew. Most people in town do.”

“I… She wasn’t blind back when we were close.” He responded lamely.

Higginbotham tutted, lost in thought. “She did lose her sight, just after her father’s death.”

“How did it happen?” He asked, curiously.

“You’d do better asking her yourself.” She answered with a tone of finality.

That night, as he went out with Kassidy Marquez, his mind was elsewhere; thinking of a certain redhead with a lovely blush.

Soon, he broke off with a shocked and angry Kassidy, because he simply could not stand the heaviness in his heart.

*_*_*_*_*

Emily teaches music to the children at the orphanage, or at least tries to. Their music room was on the bare side, so their lessons are mostly consisted of her playing for them to hear. After every break she plays, she would tell the children the stories of her life, and Nathan would sometimes be one of the characters.

When she was feeling particularly wicked, she would tell some humiliating story of the two of them when they were kids, which would always finish with him red as a tomato and mumbling, “That’s so not what happened…”

She, however, never told them about the time she spent away from Birchport, curiously enough. She never told them how she lost her sigh, nor where she had been or what she had been doing. It was mysterious.

Every day, after clock out, Nathan would go home alone looking dazed, and Katie would be waiting for him on the foyer, just to pester him as always, wondering who the girl was.

She sure was not the only one wondering.

He stopped going out at night, he stopped dating different girls at the time. In a nutshell, he stopped doing everything like he would always do. Instead, he would always go to their library to play the piano when he had any free time.

There was a time he loved playing the piano. His mother had commanded him to chose an instrument, and he took to that. He even had quite a deal of talent, but on his Senior year in high school, Lois barred him from playing and at Hartford was impossible. By the time Summer came and he returned to Birchport, he had long forgot it.

The change of his personality within such a short period of time was shocking, to say the least. It was a pleasant one, though, of course.

He would always look out of his bedroom window, gazing beyond the gardens, wanting to see her, but he would never have the chance to. So, he had to wait every day until he reached the orphanage.

*_*_*_*_*

"Nathan, it's your last day of community service today, right?" Katie declared, over breakfast. "It must have been a long two months and a half."

He shook his head, but refrained from a snarky comment. Nathan had been more patient with his cousin by marriage these days. In fact, he had been more patient and mindful with just about everybody, with the notable exception of his mother.

Happy people want for everybody to be happy too, he reasoned. Since he felt more comfortable in Emily’s company, he stopped to be so cynical about everyone’s angle when talking to him, he became more trusting. He was even beginning to accept that Katie was just a good person, after all.

"It's not long at all." He murmured, the corner of his lips tugging up slightly. "Not long at all."

Nathan, Snr., stared, seeming shocked, but said nothing. An approving smile was on his face. They simply have to meet this miracle-worker.

Lois, in turn, glared at her son. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson, boy. The next time you pull out something like that, you won’t be getting off so easily.”

The young man shrugged and got up to his feet, leaving the house with no further words. He jumped into his car and drove as fast as he could to the orphanage, getting straight into work as soon as he arrived.

He watched her as he ran his errands, during every break of that week, watching the beautiful girl playing music that touched his very soul. He was captivated, he was entranced, and he was completely falling to the grace of it.

Not only to the violin, but to the girl playing it.

The slight furrow between her brows as she contemplated something; how she pressed her fingers against her lips when she was embarrassed; how her hands would wrang together when she was nervous; how she would bite her lip when she was frightened; how...

Fuck, how did he know these things?

He buried his head into the crook of his arm. It was the last day of his community service, and he was actually here, obsessing over a girl. A girl who barely knew him and would certainly hate to.

"Nathan?"

It was then, did he realize that Mrs. Higginbotham has been calling him for some time. She looked rather displeased. Again.

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright." She smiled. "As I was saying, I've seen in your information that you're rather talented in the piano. Why don't you two play a piece together? As a farewell?"

"You're leaving?"

A slight furrow could be seen from his view and he smiled, though he knew she would not see it. She actually looked concerned. He almost laughed at the irony of Judge Rhode's words on his sentence. Well, it certainly backfired.

He nodded slowly, out of habit. "Well, yeah. It's my last day of community service."

“I’ll round up the kids, while you decide on a song.” The matron declared, excusing herself. “I’m sure it will be beautiful.”

A pause.

"So, would you like to play a duet with me?" He asked, his tone velvet and smooth.

He would not talk to her anymore after this. Perhaps he would, they were neighbours, but it did not seem likely. It would not be like it was now, in these hallowed rooms, away from their families and away from the prying eyes of the community.

As he spoke, he took big strides, reaching her quickly. He took her hands that were wrung together on her lap before taking one of them to his lips, pressing his lips against them gently. She blushed deep red.

He felt his crooked smile on his face. His real smile, the one born out of legitimate joy, that he almost forgot he had. He frowned at that thought, dismissing it away quickly.

"A duet, my Lady?"

"Sure…" She stammered, a blush still on her cheeks.

He sat on a bench and stretched his hands to play the old piano that the institution kept and he had tuned earlier that month.

There was a silence as they shifted to make themselves comfortable, before he blurted, “Where were you?”

“What?” She asked softly, in confusion.

“We were friends, Emily. It might have been long ago, but I remember that much. I left for New Haven after Labour Day one year, and when I came back in the Spring, you were gone.” He said, rather feverishly. “Then, as suddenly as you left, you came back, and now you are blind. What happened?”

The girl turned her face away, trying to hide the tint on her cheeks. “It was entirely too sudden. My dad died, and then we moved right away. I didn’t know until I heard the movers come into the house.”

“Why, Emily? What happened?” He insisted.

“My dad, he had a heart attack while driving. He hit a tree and died from the impact. I was on the car with him, and the glass shards from the windshield cut my eyes.” She explained. “The doctors in Boston said I wouldn’t be able to see anymore, so my mother moved us to New York, so I could attend a school for the blind.”

“I see.” He nodded, sober. “And Judge Rhodes?”

“My mother met him in New York. He is a good man, just a little overbearing. He thought it would be better to live in a small town, that it would be safer, so when I got into Boston Conservatory, they decided to relocate to Birchport for me to commute.” She finishes her story with a soft voice, barely perceptible.

“I see. Thank you for telling me.” He responded, a little ashamed of himself. He should not have pressured her that way.

“It’s okay, I’ve been meaning to, actually.” Emily said, smiling again. “I was honestly quite intimidated by you in the beginning. You seemed always so angry and frustrated.”

Nathan chuckled. “It’s because I was.”

“You’ve mellowed out since.” She concludes. “I’m glad. You have a nice voice when you’re happy. I like it.”

“I have a pretty voice…” Nathan teased. "I must be pretty hot, huh?"

She giggled softly. "Yeah. You seem to be, if I remember you right."

"You aren't the only girl who say that."

Her smile melted away then, and Nathan berated himself for saying such a thing.

“You’re very perceptible. I live in a house full of perfectly seeing people, and none of them identify what I think or feel.” He smiled sadly, trying to cover up his slip of the tongue.

“I’m sorry for that, Nathan. You shouldn’t be made feel this way.” She raises her hands to him. He picks them up and cradle them on his. “People are good in hiding emotions in their faces, but not on their voices, not on their bodies. If there is one good thing about being blind is that it is difficult to be lied to.”

They took a minute to enjoy each other’s bodily presence, one that was too soon interrupted by a loud cough from Mrs. Higginbotham. All the older teens behind her stifled their laughter, seeming to know what was going on.

"What piece then?" Nathan questioned, a smile seeming stuck on his face. He just could not stop smiling.

"How about Dvořák?" She offers. “The fourth duet.”

"I like it." He murmured, watching as she fumbled with the stacks of scores for a moment before pulling out the desired one.

"I hope you'd have no problem with it. Um, no, I'm not underestimating you, it's just..."

He laughed. "No worries, Emily. I can cope, and I know you're not."

He could not help the arrogance that slipped through, but it was him, after all. He was not called a piano prodigy for nothing. His thumb brushed her warm cheek casually before they turned to the score before them.

He counted softly under his breath before his fingers swept over the keys in a beautiful, enchanting dance. The soft, soothing melody filled the room, their music interacting beautifully on the dusty air, and a smile would surface on both Nathan's and Emily's face as a surge of electricity run through their veins.

"Beautiful piece, isn't it?" Emily whispered, almost too soft for him to hear as their fingers choreographed a breath-taking dance, without any rehearsals or practice. They felt whole.

"Yes." Nathan murmured, unable to stop the next sentence from slipping out. "More beautiful when it's played with you."

He knew that out of all the girls he had been with, she, Emily Harper, the ghost of Birchport, brought out the best in him. He did not need to look at her to know she was smiling a timid smile.

They struck a final chord and simultaneously turned to face each other; though Emmy could not see him, before breaking out into a joyful laughter. The people in the room started laughing too.

The younger children had no idea what was happening, but they joined in, clapping their hands and squealing, immersing themselves in the happy and light atmosphere.

The fingers that were once dancing over the keys were now interlaced with each other tightly.

He knew it then, as he swept a strand of brown hair away from her closed eyes, a beautiful smile on her face; that he wanted her to love him; that he wanted them to be together.

"Emily." He murmured, cupping her face gently in his hands, before he pressed a soft kiss against her full, pouty ones, watching as a familiar red coloured her cheeks.

"Yes?" She answered breathlessly.

He smiled. "I promise I’ll share my eyes with you, if you promise to always be with me."

He watched a tear escape from the corner of her closed eye, before leaning forward and capturing it with his finger.

“I promise.” She whispered.

The children cheered while Mrs. Higginbotham looked at them with a berating eye-stare, scolding them for the display, but she could not stop a soft smile from spreading across her face, either.

*_*_*_*_*

TF Masterlist

Taglist: @alicars​; @boneandfur​; @catlady0911​; @choicesyouplayandmore​; @choicesficwriterscreations​; @cocomaxley​; @choicesfannatalie​; @emerald-bijou​;  @hellospunkiebrewster​; @liamxs-world​; @lizeboredom​; @mfackenthal​; @moodygrip​; @mrsdrakewalkerblog​; @onesuntowngirl​; @shelivesinthewoods​; @theroyalweisme​; @tornbetween2loves​; @topsyturvy-dream​; @youvileevillittlecockroach​

[sunshinemitch]

Top 10 Favorite Characters

Rules: Name 10 favorite characters from 10 different things and tag 10 people.

I thought entirely too hard about this but I had so much fun doing it so here have a glimpse into my brain

10. Michael Kelso - That 70′s Show

I love almost all of the main characters on this show and I think they make eachother one of the best casts of all time so it was hard for me to just pick one character. I picked Kelso solely for the reason that he always makes me laugh in every episode and he is genuinely so clueless and innocent. He just radiates that dumb bitch energy that we all need sometimes. (Also thank you Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis for getting married in real life and making me believe in love again)

9. Penelope Garcia - Criminal Minds

While I have a very special place in my heart for Dr. Spencer Reid I feel like I self identify with Penelope in a lot of ways and I don’t think she ever gets the respect she deserves. My favorite thing about her is how she is always so smart and joyful even when she’s surrounded by so much ugliness all the time. Also, her unapologetic love and over the top flirting with tall dark and handsome men is the most relatable thing ever. I felt that one so hard.

8. Steve Harrington - Stranger Things

Something that you will soon notice is that I am a sucker for some A+ character growth and many of my favorite characters start out as awful people and then capture my heart. Steve Harrington has amazing hair, is a noted LGBT ally, and would protect his 5 adopted children with his life. I want to marry this man yesterday. 

7. Peter Parker - Spiderman

I have loved every single version of this character no matter who is playing him. I love that Peter would do anything to protect his friends and the people he loves. He has a clear moral compass but you can still see that he struggles and is conflicted about making the tough decisions. His immediate defense is sarcasm and I relate to that habit so hard. Precious boy energy at its best.

6. Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez - The Sandlot

Anyone that knows me knows that I had the biggest crush on this boy when I was growing up. He is so kind to literally all of his friends and would do anything for them. He’s always looking out for all of them and making sure everyone feels included and loved. Literally the best friend that everyone deserves and my heart belongs to him forever.

5. Evan “Buck” Buckley - (9-1-1)

This mans was so annoying when the show first started, but now I would gladly sacrifice my life for him. He cares SO MUCH about his friends and his sister and he shows it all the time by being a chaotic dumbass and trying to save literally everyone he comes into contact with. Also he loves his adopted child Christopher Diaz more than anything in the entire world and has proven to be the best second dad ever. 10/10 would marry but he’s currently dating his best friend Eddie and is unavailable even though they are both unaware.

4. Eddie Kaspbrak - It (2017)

This child single handedly stole my heart from the moment I saw his hypochondriac ass freak out over his friends playing in the sewer. Also he fixed his cast by making the LOSER into LOVER and it’s the softest thing I’ve ever seen. Also a notable character who also had great character growth and overcame his greatest fear in order to help save his friends.

3. Lydia Martin - Teen Wolf

Lydia Martin is one of my favorite characters of all time. I aspire to be even half as smart and beautiful as her. This girl literally went from being the stereotypical dumb, rich, selfish girl in high school to one of the bravest, smartest, most badass female character ever. Plus she did it all while serving some of the BEST looks of all time. Iconic.

2. Bellamy Blake - The 100

I have never cared about a character and his growth over a show as much as I have cared about this man. I have been watching this show for years and the emotional attachment I have to this character is unlike any other. One of the only reasons I still watch this show is because I need to know what happens to Bellamy when they eventually end it. As I said before I love a good character arc and Bellamy is literally the poster boy for character growth. I absolutely HATED him at the beginning of the show, but his character has gone from being a selfish douchebag having threesomes in his downtime, to one of the most selfless emotional characters who only wants to save his friends and do what is right. If he dies I will never recover.

1. Sarah Baker - Cheaper By The Dozen 1 & 2

My queen of all queens, Ms. Sarah Baker. When I was growing up there was no character I identified more with than Sarah Baker. She was the sarcastic smart-ass tomboy who was always down to play football with her brothers and her dad and she didn’t care what anyone thought. In the second movie I literally cried at the scene where Sarah gets caught trying to steal makeup from the gift shop and she tells her mom that it was to impress a boy but her mom tells her she doesn’t need makeup to be pretty and that if a boy doesn’t like her for her than he isn’t worth keeping. Literally the most valid. Also the kid she went on a date with in the movie was played by Taylor Lautner so she clearly had good taste.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. 

if you want to do this please do it, I love to see everyones answers! I tag @bisexualtravisdermott​ @babevillier​ and @trevormoore​

[nox-scrie]

The Burning Devil

TMA5 Countdown- Day 1, The Corruption and The Vast

So... the trailer dropped yesterday and this fanfic is NOT really true to the canon universe but I don't really care (as Jonny doesn't care about me or my feelings). Also it's not corrected so I'm sowwy for this @pilesofnonsense . Hope y'all like it though!!

Content Warnings: Burning, Loneliness, Cancer and some kind of Madness

Characters: Jon "Jarchivist" Sims, Martin "Too Pure 4 This" Blackwood, Jude Perry and some OCs

Fears: The Corruption, The Vast and some mentions of The Eye

Rating: Teen and Up Audience

Setting: ~a month after the ending of Season 4

Word Count: 3585

~~

The Burning Devil

The train almost reached London when the weird things started happening. Most of the passengers were asleep, the train having been going non-stop for the last 15 hours. Nobody even cared to look at the two men sitting in a bed together in a sleep  car, one of the two shaking so badly you couldn't focus on his shape and the other franatically searching for something in a backpack.

The first light bulb went out as easily as if you blew a candle. One of the men started nervously bitting his lip, before abandonind the bag and craddling the trembling man in his arms. A girl on a few beds away from them, headphones in her years and a book opened in her lap, sent a nasty look towards the non-functioning light, and then looked at the two men as if she knew they were looking at her. She didn't say anything though, other than smiling in an approving way.

Then, the whole train shook, as if it was passed by an electric wave. Now most of the passangers were awake, some screaming in distress, others just mumbling about the poor quality of transportation in England.  Nobody looked at the men that were hugging on the bed, and how something started... moving on one of their skin. A sigh escaped the trembling person as they started clinging to their lover's sweater.

"Martin." was all he said, and then the eyes that have appeared on his skin started blinking rapidly, chaotically, and Martin started feeling sick.

"I... I think I can find it, Jon. I really do. Just..."

"No. The girl. She has something to tell me."

Jon was looking down at the dirty bedsheets, rows of sweat covering his forehead, but the eyes kept staring at the girl with the headphones, who was now half out of her bed and walking the short distance towards them. Martin covered Jon's forearms with a blanket, but he could do anything about the eyes that appeared on his lovers' face and neck. He was hungry, and there was no other meal than information, trauma, pain and sorrow he needed right now.

"Hey... is your partner okay? It looks like-" and then she saw the eyes. The moment was imprinted on her face, which turned a ghostly white, her black eyes wide and mouth started opening to let out a scream.

"No." was all Jon said, looking at her with his own eyes, and the scream was stuck in the girl's throat. The eyes on Jon's skin started to shine, as if blazing from within. "Tell me... tell me your story."

A tape recorder appeared on his hand out of thin air, and Martin closed his eyes for a few seconds and signaled for the girl to have a seat on their bed. She did that, but Martin wasn't sure how much of that was her own will and how much The Eye's. He extended a hand though, and she looked at it, panicked, before looking at Martin once again and seeing.. something on his face that made her take his hand.

Nobody was paying attention to the two men and the girl that were sitting in a bed, prefering to watch the windows that were now cracked in shapes that perfectly resembled some eyes. Martin started feeling his heart pumping, fatigue overtaking his body, and he didn't look st Jon, he couldn't. Instead, he focused on the girl's face and clasped her hand with both of his.

Jon pressed play, and the eyes were rolling around and around on his skin, all kinds of colors and shapes, from white to blue to purple and yellow, from small to wide and enlongated. His voice was calm, collected, and it sent a chill down Martin's spine as he tightened his grip on the girl's hand. He hated the this, the fact that The Eye had so much control, the way it turned his lover into a puppet. Even though anger was building up inside his chest, he took a deep breath and focused on the story. There was nothing either of them could do now.

"Statement of... Alicia Jesper... regarding the last car race she ever took part in. Statement recorded directly from subject, the first of November, 2018. Statement begins."

There was a moment of silence, and the eyes focused on Alicia at once, burning on her. She let out a sigh, one of distress or fear or both, and she opened her mouth and started talking. The words were heavy, and being dragged out like this was like seeing someone be placed in a chair and given a handgun, so they can kill themselves before it gets worse for them. Martin felt his hands crushed by her, and he realized that maybe she was angry too. He hoped she was; anger is not hopelessness, he would know.

"I've always been interested in cars. Either in an aesthetic sort of way, or driving them, cars are a constant in my life more than anything else... or, they used to be, at least.

My first memory is me in the front seat, being held by my father. I remember how small my hands were on the steering wheel, and how he laughed, or caughed, because I was shaking and I thought that's what it felt like to drive on a bumpy road. I must have been around three or four years old then, and my father died when I was ten. Mom never recovered, and by the time I turned fourteen, sha has changed half a dozen of jobs and has given up entirely on at least trying to get better.

When she told me we had to sell the car to pay our rent, I revolted. It was not my fault that she couldn't get herself into psychiatric help, and neither was the car's. I told her, begged her, to try to get into therapy and finding a job, but she was hellbent. And that's how I got my first fake ID.

One of the upperclassmen, some person named Morgan Doe, was into this shady, movie-like, kind of bussines. They had a reputation for faking IDs and other documents, and getting their hands on everything you wanted for the right price. I took all of our economies, which were really not that many now that I think of it, and asked for a Graduation Certificate and a fake ID. They haven't even looked at me for more than three seconds, and nodded. In two weeks, I was a new person, Allison Jay, an 18 year old who was taking a gap year before going to the University of Manchester. I got a job of delivering pizza without even trying too hard.

Now I just had to learn how to drive. There are many... many Youtube tutorials and Wikihow articles that really do help, but I had to learn it on my own, my short body barely reaching the pedals. It was a long process, but luckily I haven't destroyed anything in the time I was learning, and the police never stopped my car, even as I knew I was not driving under the speed limit.

From then on, it was the time for jobs related to driving: I delivered pizza, drove people around, even signed up for Uber for a while. The tips were good, but I had to clean the backseat so often that the material started wearing off. All in all, throught high school my mom and I did great money wise. She was still a nasty thing, angry and... in pain all the time, but at least we had something to put on the table every day. And then she died too, and I was left with a three-room apartment and crappy car. I was finishing high school then, and after the graduation ceremony, I packed my things, burned up any remains of the name Alicia Jesper I could find, sold the apartment and the car and left.

My first sports car was won in a race. It was a lucky strike; I was with one of my friends, Mirabella Ashton, who's place I was crashing, and we thought it could be fun. We were both into driving, and my friend even participated in a few races, but I was a newbie. Still, when this drunk guy came to us and said that he will race for his car, my fingers started trembling and my brain was on fire, and before I knew what was happening, I said yes. My friend was pretty tipsy too, and they let me borrow their car as long as I get it back in one piece. I joked that they didn't even know me, but I was nervous anyway. I placed a few grans on the bet, almost all of the money I had left, got into my friends' car and tried to calm my heart. I looked at the other drivers, all of them young and overrexcited that they will compete against a drunk guy and a girl, and the anger that started in my heart was more powerful than any fuel you can lay your eyes on.

So I drove. And I won. I shared the profit after the first race with my friend, and with the rest of the money and the car, I left the city. And so my life of car racing started. It was not always illegal, but it was hard to make a name for yourself in a men's world, without college or relations to send you to the top. I lived the next decade in abandoned train stations and open fields, drank so much booze my blood turned to beer, and had the time of my life. It was last year, when the incident happened.

I was good at what I was doing. I was so good, people were started to call me The Burning Devil, and got out of my way when I came to the races. It's not a popular activity, with only a few true sponsors, and after I settled down I started to get to know most of the people that came to these events. It would have been surprising to not notice the new person who came in that awful day, all dressed in red leather and with ginger hair.

She said her name was Jude, not giving a last name too. She said she was a newbie, as if you couldn't see that from how she was too-casually leaned on her car. She said she wanted to race, and that she wanted to race me.

I laughed, a bitter sound, and told her I don't want to crush her dreams when they're still so young. She in retutn extended a hand towards me, a wide smile on her face, and told me that if I give her a chance I might just change my mind. I didn't laugh this time; there was something in her voice... it made me jump slightly, as if there was a small flame under my feet. She was the one who laughed, and got inside her car without wating for me to shake her hand.

I looked at my friends, at my family basically, the only people who have cared for me and helped me improve, and smiled an already winning smile. They cheered me, and Mirabella, who was staying at my place for the time being, gave me a kiss on the lips. We were kind of in a relationship at the time, but that didn't continue after the race.

It was an easy win. I had a decade of experience and a good car, way better than the one I won when I was eighteen. I looked over to the girl in red leather, and she was staring right back at me. As the signal that warned us to get ready was heard, she smiled at me, again. This time I felt the flame cover my arms, and I hissed. I remember thinking that I should not let her get in my head.

This race was held on a hill, as were most of the races sponsored by Simon Fairchild. We were supposed to ride from the bottom of it to the top and make an U-turn to get back to where we started. It was more complicated than one might think, having to control the car both as you drive on a diagonal line, and and as you turn on a small area of space. Yet, I've made this circuit for more than a dozen of times so I wasn't worrying.

It took me only three minutes to get ahead by a good few hundred of metres. I could barely see har car, as red as her clothes, in the rear view mirror, and laughed out loud, feeling one with the car, feeling so free and so present in the world... The top of the hill was right ahead, and I was already feeling the taste of the rum the others' were going to give me and the smell of Mirabella's skin when she hugged me. It will be amazing to see the girl in red red with anger.

I reached the top of the hill witht he right speed limit to make the turn. My hand was on the break, at ready, and just as I turned it it... wasn't moving. It was stuck. I frantically started moving the handle, the end of the cliff top approaching me hurriedly, and I just couldn't. I started unbuckling my seat belt, ready to jump out of the car, and then I saw the red car, right next to my window. With half a mind I thought about how could she have gotten there so fast, and then I started to notice the fire. Her whole car was ablaze. She was laughing, but I couldn't hear her, just watch the wicked way her lips moved, and then she waved at me and I noticed that.. her skin was dripping. Just like the wax of a candle. The last thing I remember before plumetting off the hill was that her eyes and hair have caught fire too, and that it was beautiful in it's horror.

And then the car plummeted off the cliff. My seat belt was off, and I frantically tried to open the door, but it was stuck too. I think I screamed, I must have screamed, waiting for my awful end. But I.. I didn't die. The car was falling at a constant speed, like a paper airplane, almost floating in the air. The sky above me was too bright, and the green of the hill was barely noticeable in my fall. I didn't move, out of terror that changing my position might cause the lose of balance the car has. So I just waited for my inevitable death.

It's a weird thing, knowing that you'll die in only a few minutes, and knowing how it will happen, but being useless as in making a change. I watched the sky above me, that burning blue, and thought of my father. He has died of lung cancer from working long hourse in a mine around my hometown. Mom passed away in a similar way, lung cancer, but it was a weird thing... she has never smoked, or been around so heavily polluted air as my father did.

As the car kept crashing, falling, floating, I felt it. I felt the air being stuck in my chest, and I started coughing. I couldn't breath. I couldn't open my mouth enough to get in some air, any air, I couldn't make my nose inhale, or my chest stop hurting, and my head started feeling heavy as I was coughing and falling and floating towards my own death. I felt blood vessels explode across my skin with ugly pops, my eyes glued shut, I felt hopeless and wished so, so, hard to just die already.

And then it stopped. The car was still floating at a constant speed, but the pain in my chest was no longer there. I could breath, and I did that for at least ten minutes before allowing myself to open my eyes. The sky was brighter than ever, and I hated it.

That's how I lived for what must have been three days. It was coughing fits and the impossibility to breath, it was me crying softly in the driver's seat, not caring about any kind of balance as I tried with all my might to open the door, any door, and kill myself to escape from that hell. The sky turned black when night begun, such as it did everyday, but even that was too bright, ablaze, mocking me in its freedom. I couldn't sleep. I didn't feel hunger, or thirst, either, I just sat there, watching, wishing to die, wishing for the coughing fits to stop, but none of my wishes came true.

When I felt something of that floating shift, I was just getting out of a coughing fit. This one was different than the others, blood having painted my hands now. That was the moment the car started falling.

It took only a few seconds. It took only a few seconds for it to get stuck in a tree around the other end of the hill, and for me to open the driver's door as if it was nothing. I fell on the ground and started running, expecting to be sore or hungry or in pain, at least, but I was feeling nothing. I ran and left my crashed car behind, as far away as I could. I needed to get on the road, to hitchhike to the city, and to make sure everyone knew I'm okay.

That's when I saw all the people gathered right where the race started, cheering for the girl in red so loudly I could hear it from almost a mile away. I stopped in my tracks; there was no way they could have been sitting there for three days, in exactly the same clothes. Uncertain, I walked towards them and saw the girl, Jude, with her arm around Mirabella's shoulder, saying something in her ear. She was not burned up. She was fine, her car was fine, her clothes were fine. I was not fine.

When Jude saw me, she smiled that wide, awful grin. I felt like I could cry, but I cried so much in the air that I don't think I'll be able to do it again. Jude thanked me for the race, and kissed Mirabella on the head. Her eyes were slightly unfocused, but she looked at me with an indescribable expression, before turning in Jude's embrace, away from me.

"And thanks for my prize, too." said Jude, barely above a whisper, as she turned towards the crowd with Mirabella. I could see that Mirabella's shirt had a hole on the shoulder where Jude's hand has been, a hole that looked as if it was burned in the material. It was the shape of the girl in red's hand.

I hitchhiked the way home. None of my friends offered me a ride."

Martin's hands were sore, and Allison's eyes were red, as if she has been crying. Jon no longer had the eyes covering his skin and he looked tired, not sick, as he looked before. The trembling stopped, and the windows were back in their original shape. Most of the passangers thought they must have imagined them breaking, or saw the branches of the trees in the pale moonlight hitting across the windows and thought they were cracks.

"Statement ends. Thank you... Alicia. "

"Do. Not. Call me. That." she extracted her hands from Martin's grip and formed a fist towards Jon, clutching her jaw. "I don't know what you just did, how you made me talk, but what I've been through has been hard enough without some creppy guy digging in my past and making me throw up all my trauma to be recorded on that stupid tape. Do you and your boyfriend get off on that?"

"It's really not like that Allison, we-" Martin started, but she extended her hand and made a fist of his sweater, threatening him now.

"Stop it. Stop it. This has been.. a very weird night. I will go back to sleep and when I wake up you two will not say a word to me ever again, not if you don't want me to call the cops. This night, this discussion, has not happened."

Jon let out a soft, unamused laugh, and nodded. Allison got up from the bed, clutching her hands around her neck, and started coughing. She returned to her bed with her back turned towards them, headphones in her ears, and did not move from that position.

"I hate when that you have to do that." Martin said, failing to hide the edge of his voice.

"I know. Me too. But it will be over soon, okay? It will be over soon."

They looked at each other and Jon sighed, placing a small kiss on Martin's forehead. He has been getting hungrier and hungrier in the past few days, but at noleast now they had a plan. Jon clutched the tape recorder in his hand and looked at the sky, the sky that was looking back at him, and hoped that their plan will work.

[lovemesomesurveys]

Have you always known what you've wanted to do with your life, career-wise?  I thought I did. My freshman year in high school I learned what psychology was after having a health and psychology class and decided then it was something I wanted to pursue. Prior to that I knew I wanted to help people, but I was thinking like a counselor. I was always the friend people came to if they needed advice or just someone to talk to. In middle school I remember going on those AOL teen message boards and offering advice there. I loved trying to help people and being the one to lend an ear. In college I majored in psych and obtained my BA. And then that was it.  I have no plans or interest in pursuing anything further, so obviously a psychologist isn’t in the cards anymore.  I honestly have no idea what I want to do career wise. 

If you found out you couldn't bear children, would you be willing to adopt? I can’t have kids, but I also don’t want any.

Would you stay at a haunted hotel? Nope.

Could you live without the Internet? I mean yeah, the world would keep on spinning, but I quite enjoy my internet and would like to keep it.

Do you always remember to bring a towel? I always set out a towel before getting into the shower.

Spiders: Kill them or let 'em go? Well, I don’t do anything. Noooo way. I get someone else to get rid of them!

How do you feel about Paris Hilton? I don’t care. I very rarely hear about her anymore.

When drunk, are you: violent, crazy, clingy, talkative, or depressed? I got talkative and the word vomit liked to come out. I usually also ended up feeling depressed and lonely by the end of the night.

Do you know who is on the $5000 bill? (yes, it does exist!) James Madison. They don’t make ‘em anymore, though.

What is the best HAND-MADE present you've ever received? A quilt a friend of my grandma’s made for me when I was a kid during one of my hospital stays. 

Do you Yahoo? My email is Yahoo.

Have you ever gotten pizza delivered to your house that you didn't order? Nope.

What's the most disgusting thing you've ever encountered while at a hotel? I haven’t had a bad hotel experience, thankfully.

What would you do if Hugh Hefner hit on you? He died a few years ago, but anyway he wouldn’t have been interested in me. Which is perfectly fine haha I don’t want some pervy old man hitting on me.

Is the price always right? No.

Do you smell what the Rock is cookin'!?!? Nope. (And yes I know that was his wrestling tagline or whatever back in the day).

Are you gullible? I’m a pretty skeptical person. 

What's the craziest rumor you've heard about Marilyn Manson? That he was the kid from The Wonder Years lol. The friend to Fred Savage’s character. I have no idea how or why that rumor got started.

(Insert random song lyric of your choice here): “Cause I’m one step closer to the edge, and I’m about to break.”

Does unneccessary punctuation annoy you? It’s unnecessary. 

Do you know anyone who was born on leap year? Nope.

Do you follow a 5-second rule after dropping food on the floor? Ew, nooo. Once it hits the floor it’s trash.

Do you think that only unclean people get head lice? Nope, major misconception.

Are you skilled with balls? (like basketball or baseball, you perv!)  Nope.

Did you take Flintstone vitamins or any others as a child?  Blech, yes. Those were so gross.

What types of things do you think the government is hiding from us?  I know a lot of people think there’s something going on given current events. I’ve seen those comments.

What would you do if the Kool-Aid man busted through your wall? If something just randomly burst through my wall it would scare the shit out of me omg.

Have you ever been to an art museum? Yeah, a few.

How do you like your soda: Glass bottle is best, followed by fountain soda, but can and plastic bottle are fine, too. I used to love soda, but I don’t drink it anymore apart from when I take my medicine. 

Do you recycle? Yeah, we recycle cans and plastic bottles.

Can one person really make a difference? Yes.

Which is worse: elevators or escalators? Well, all I can take are elevators, so. The thought of being stuck in one scares me.

Are you gonna make your momma proud? I feel like such a huge disappointment. 

Ring the bell for service or wait patiently for a minute first? I’d wait a bit first.

Boomerang or Cartoon Network? Boomerang is cool cause it shows old stuff from my childhood. 

Have you learned anything valuable today? Not so far.

What's your favorite kind of Doritos?  Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch. Back when I could eat spicy food; though, I would have picked the Spicy Nacho ones. They have Flamin’ Hot Doritos now, which I’m sad I never got to try.

Do your parents have MySpace pages? No. They weren’t into social media stuff back then. They have a Facebook, though. 

If you had a time machine, would you go to the past or to the future? I’ve always wanted to go back in the past, but now there’s a big part of me curious to see past this coronavirus stuff. Like when will it end? Will it? That could also be terrifying, though. The future could end up looking even worse...

What if Darth Vader was YOUR father? So I could be a jedi? Sweet.

Do you honestly know how to play Monopoly or just make up rules as you go? I think I’ve played it the right way. For the most part, anyway.

Be honest...ever peed in the pool?  Nooo.

Do you ever fathom the amount of words in the English language? It’s pretty wild.

Have you ever pulled a fire alarm? Nope.

Do brain teasers tickle, confuse, or fascinate your brain? They definitely are often confusing, but I like them. 

You're hungry. All there is to eat is stale chips. Eat 'em or not? Mehhh probably not. 

Have you had your tonsils removed?  No.

If Ashton Kutcher punk'd you, would you feel the need to punch him?  No, but depending on the prank I might be upset or pissed off. I loved watching that show back in the day, though. I also had a crush on Ashton Kutcher at the time, ha.

Have you ever fallen off of a treadmill while walking/running?  I’ve never been on a treadmill.

Do you drink milk right from the bottle/carton, or pour yourself a glass? I don’t drink milk at all.

Isn't Chef Boyardee awesome? I wouldn’t say it’s awesome, but I do like Spaghetti O’s. 

Do you like marshmellows in your hot cocoa? Marshmallows are a must.

What reality show has been taken WAY too far? I’m just wondering why The Bachelor is still on. That’s one I never got into.

If you were going on a trip, would you Mapquest the directions first? I used Mapquest back in the day, like when you still had to print out directions. Now I just use Google Maps on my phone. 

Do you hide when Jehovah's Witnesses knock on your door? We just don’t answer the door.

Did you ever think any of your teachers were HOT?  Nope.

If you farted in front of your significant other, would he/she care? I’m single.

White Castle: nasty or absolutely yummy?!  I’ve never a fresh White Castle from the actual place, just the kind you can get in the frozen food section at the store haha. Those are good, though.

Must you grab a souvenir from almost everywhere you go?  Haha I’m a keychain gal. I also like getting a shirt or hoodie.

Have you ever walked out on a movie at the theater? Which one?  I remember doing that once, but I don’t remember what the movie was.

Did you enjoy making things out of Play-Doh as a child? Yeah, I loved Play-Doh. If I ever happen to be around Play-Doh and get a whiff of it, it instantly takes me back to childhood. It’s such a nostalgic smell.

[halcyonnhood]

Sight and Sound [5sos fic] Ch.3

Note: unedited. Sorry for random n late updates. More to come. 

Previous chapters: [one] [two]

Chapter Three

Eight days and four hours. It takes eight whole days to realize where I had recognized Ashton from. I had been looking at the photos hanging up and decorating some of the coffee tables when I realized the boys were in a band. 5 Seconds Of Summer, a name that would've been easily recognizable to 16 year old Tenley and not as relevant to 21 year old Tenley. My first reaction is to tell Diana, so as I explain my newfound discovery to her, she just smiles at me and nods. Either I'm just really oblivious to something or my own best friend is privy to knowledge I've yet to discover.

“Did you know?” I gasp at her.

“I mean, yeah, I still loved their music!” Diana then points at me, “Unlike you. You traitor”

“I haven't paid attention to them since sophomore year,” I huff. “You could've told me”

“Why would I tell you!?”

“Because you're my best fr-” I start my spiel, but she quickly interrupts me.

“I don't want them thinking we're psycho fangirls! They think we're oblivious and they just started trusting us. They'd kick us out.” She whispers. “They can't know.”

“A-” I groan as I'm interrupted yet again.

“We can't know what?”

Calum stands in the doorway with his eyes narrowed and focused on us. I just look at Diana with wide eyes, shocked and unsure of how to respond. To be fair, she is the one who said it and I thought all of the boys were in the basement playing video games or pool. She looks just as shocked, but knowing her she'll come up with some quick and witty response. Or not.

“Tenley,” Calum steps towards us “What can't we know?”

“It's a personal thing...I-” I trip over my words nervously. “It's nothing important”

“Sounds like you can tell me then,” He glares at me in a threatening manner.

“I really can't...That's why it's personal…”

“Then I guess I'll just have Ashton get it out of you” He shrugs nonchalantly “Just remember that this is my house.”

This is my house. The words echo through my mind for most of the day, keeping me on edge and nervous that he would actually kick us out. He didn't bother saying anything to me for the rest of the day, but whenever we're in the same room he just stares daggers into my soul. If dirty looks could kill, I would've been dead seven hours ago. In my mind it isn't that big of a deal that we know of them and their band, if we were gonna do anything horrible we would've already done it. Diana may be a hardcore fan, but I haven't given any attention to them since I was a teen. I didn't understand what the hype would be, we're in the middle of a fuckin apocalypse.

After the first night, I half expected Calum to be nicer to me. Ever since then he's done nothing but send me suspicious glances and follow me around when he thinks I'm not paying attention. It makes me wonder if the whole scenario was a dream, he went to sleep on the couch beside my own and when I woke up again in the early morning he was missing. Apparently he can only be nice one time, then it's just an angry atmosphere every other day. The other boys are kind and inviting, why can't he be the same? It's just disappointing that I can't see the good guy that Ashton claims is somewhere buried deep down. It became  apparent that indeed, I won't see that anytime soon. So I just stay in the guest room and read whatever books Calum has available in his house, which is currently one full of poems.

“I see you and Calum are still clashing,” Ashton comments after entering the guest room.

“Calum is doing all the clashing,” I reply, not bothering to look up from my book. “He can't just be an ass and expect me to be polite,”

“All you had to do was answer his question,” He tells me softly.

“Does he not understand what the word ‘personal’ means?”

“He heard Diana say you couldn't tell us. What are you hiding that's so horrible?”

“NOTHING, ASH.” I raise my voice as I look up at him. “You guys hide stuff from me, am I supposed to pretend I don't see you whispering when I'm in the same room?”

“Don't be like that, you know we tell you everything!” Ashton defends harshly.

“Looks like we're both liars then,” I hiss. Ashton just stares at me with his mouth agape and a slightly hurt look on his face. “I told her I wouldn't say anything, so I'm not.”

“It can't be that bad. Just tell me, I won't tell Calum. We just want to know if any of us should be concerned,” Ashton sits on the edge of my bed carefully.

“We know who you guys are,” I look away from him. “I saw some pictures and put together that you were familiar because of your band. I went to tell Diana, but she already knew because she's still a big fan...I di-”

“That's it?” He laughs loudly. “A big fuss over knowing 5sos?”

“I-I” I'm cut off again when he uses two fingers to turn my chin towards him. I try to look away again before he can see the tears brewing in my eyes, but his expression softens and he tightens the grip to keep me facing him.

“Ten, why are you crying?” Ashton questions with a slight frown.

“I'm scared, Ash” I wipe away the tears hastily before continuing, “I'm scared that Calum will fucking make us leave just because he thinks we're crazy fangirls or something. I'm scared because I've always had my brother to help me through things. Diana is the only person I have left and I don't want us to die yet,”

“This may be Calums house, but I would never let him do that to you. You can trust us. Even when we're being total dicks” He tells me with a reassuring smile. Then he pulls me into his chest, a steady hand rubbing my shoulders in a soothing way. “I promise we won't ever hurt you,”

/  /  /

Thirteen days and six hours. The dreaded day has arrived and faster than any of us had expected. We ran out of food yesterday at breakfast, even after we had rationed and planned for another weeks worth. Luke blamed Michael for sneaking snacks, Michael claims it was Ashton, and Calum just tells everyone to shut up. I just sit silently next to Diana and Michael wondering how the hell they'd solve this problem. We can't just drive to a store without sacrificing someone for their eyesight. It doesn't matter what plan I come up with...Someone dies in each one.

“There's a store one block away.” Calum tells us. “We will blindfold ourselves and a couple of us will walk there,”

“That's literally walking into our own deaths, Cal” Michael shakes his head dramatically. “I'm not down for that,”

“The longer we sit here doing nothing will only make it worse. Starving will make us die too.” He retorts with a raised eyebrow.

“I just think it's too much of a risk,” Michael mumbles. “This thing...It will do anything to kill us”

“But it can't unless we look at it,” Ashton glances at Michael quickly. “Calum's right. As long as we have blindfolds we can make it there and back.”

“Who's all going?” Diana finally asks, her blue eyes darting around nervously. I can tell she's hoping to stay with Michael.

“I am” Calum tells her. “I think Ash should stay, we need someone level headed to go and one to stay. Ash will keep this place safe and guarded while I'm gone,”

“I'll go with you,” I tell Calum. I may dislike him right now, but I won’t go as low as letting him walk into danger all alone.

“Me too,” Luke glances at me quickly with a small nod.

“Good, I'll go find us some bandanas. Luke gather up some bags.”

I'm going to die. That's the only thought cycling through my mind. The plan works in theory, but no one knows how this demon creature truly works. For all we know, the blindfolds could be pointless and we'll off ourselves just from being outside with it again. Diana and Michael's terrified expressions do not do anything to calm my nerves, it just stresses me out more each second that I spend waiting for the boys. I can hear Luke rummaging through the rooms upstairs and the squeak of Calums shoes from the staircase, all while Ashton just tries to give me another soft smile before I look away. It doesn’t matter how hard I attempt to block out the negative thoughts, there's always one wedged somewhere in the depths of my mind. I’m going to die. We’re all going to die. Doing this is pointless, we’ll never make it out alive. We can never leave this house again. It just seems futile when we’re all going to die soon enough. The thought is almost enough to make me wish I had died too, then I wouldn’t feel so terrified and alone. My mind is rendered temporarily silent when Calum places three purple bandanas on my lap, startling me out of my horrendous daydreaming.

“Empty your pockets,” Calum tells me “Make sure you don’t take anything sharp or potentially dangerous.”

“Tenley wouldn’t hurt you guys,” Diana glares at him defensively. I just casually place everything from my pockets onto the side table, including the sharp nail file I had been using earlier today. I know his intentions for the request and I don't mind it.

“I’m not worried about her hurting me,” He snaps back. “She can try to hurt us all she wants, it’s so she doesn’t stab herself in the jugular or something.”

“It’ll just make us all a little less on edge,” Luke adds as he places a duffle bag beside me. “We already checked our stuff.”

“Good point,” Diana just mumbles with an embarrassed expression.

“I’m guessing that’s why you’re using three blindfolds each too,” Michael eyes the blue cloth in Calum's hands. “Extra protection.”

“We’re going to use two and keep the third in our bags.” He nods. “Just in case,”

“How long do you think it'll take you guys?”

“An hour and a half at most,”

“And what if it takes longer?”

“Then stop waiting for us” I tell Michael, his blue eyes widening. “If we don't come back tonight, then don't spend your life expecting to see us again”

“What she said,” Calum nods in agreement.

For the first time, he gives me a smile before moving to tie the cloth around his head. Ashton helps me tie both of mine tightly over my eyes and behind my head. I blink testing to see if I can see or if any light bleeds through, but I'm met by nothing but darkness and I let out a sigh I didn't realize I had been holding in. Luke finishes getting ready, we grab our bags, and Ashton leads us towards the door. Queue the emotional goodbyes and hugs as if we're leaving for world war three. Close enough. Diana grabs me and pulls me close, I can tell from her long hair and fruity scent, since she insists on still using perfume she had kept in her purse. Ashton is next, his strong arms wrapped tightly around me and his soothing voice whispering that I'd be okay. Comforting as usual. Then it all happens too fast, Ashton telling everyone to close their eyes, the door opening, then the three of us are outside and on our own. Now we're walking in the dead silence.

“Stop,” Calum calls out. “We're at the light, we need to go right,”

“We're almost there then, right?” Luke questions.

“It's close. I just have to feel for the sliding doors.” He tells us softly. “Be careful. Just listen to our surroundings, okay?”

We listen to the sound of Calum's hand sliding against the different textures of the buildings, brick, stone, glass. The sound of our shoes scuffing against the cement. Then once he finds the sliding doors, I can tell that he's trying to break the lock and the nerves forming in the pit of my stomach are climbing up through my throat making it hard to concentrate on anything other than the fact that we're going to die out here. Then the world stops turning, my lungs stop breathing, my heart stops beating.

“It's going to be okay, Tenley.” Matthias’ voice calls from beyond the darkness of my blindfold. “Let me help you”

“Matt?” I gasp.

“Ten, who are you talking to?” Luke's sounds confused and lost.  

“Ten, I promise I can help” This time the voice belongs to Ashton. Hearing both voices leaves me soothed and I instantly take a step towards the sound of Ashton's voice. “Just open your eyes so you can follow me,”

“Calum said not to open my eyes,”

“Don't open your eyes, Ten” Calum warns in a harsh voice.

“I'm going to die if you don't help me, please help”

“Ashton, I can't…”

“Tenley, listen” I feel Calum's warm hands on my shoulders, the force making my body sway slightly. “Matthias isn't here, he's dead. Ashton isn't here either, he's waiting for you to come home okay?”

“But he said he was gonna help..” I let out a frustrated huff “Now he's going to die since I'm not helping him”

“He's safe, he is. The demon things, they're trying to trick us. We got the door open and we'll be safe inside, c'mon” He pulls me along with him and then I hear the click of the doors being pushed together behind me.

“Cal are you sure it's safe to take off the blindfolds?” Luke now questions the boy.

“The store was owned by this old lady named Mary, she watched the news and got paranoid and taped cardboard everywhere so the customers would be safer,” He informs us.

“How could you even know that?”

“Mary liked me, we talked after I would checkout. I'm also looking at it right now and I'm not dead yet,” Calum just chuckles slightly.

After a minute or two of me trying to undo Ashton's knot in the blindfold, I feel Calums own hands nudge mine aside before he goes about untangling it. His breath fans across the back of my neck and I huff in frustration, just wanting to get this over and done with. It doesn't matter what the boys say, the voices sounded so real. It has me on edge knowing how these creatures can manipulate voices and use them for evil. Hearing Matthias’ voice again is enough to driven me mad. It's always a game of pushing away bad thoughts, but I have no other option when Calum pulls off the bandana and leaves me blinking to adjust to the lights. The store is perfectly intact and exactly how it had been before this apocalyptic bullshit.

“Remember, canned goods and anything that will be useful once the power goes out.” Calum tells us. “I'm thinking that we also just fill up a cart and take it with us. We would be good for ages with the bags and a cart.”

I fill the bag with with an assortment of canned food, anything from spaghettiOs, vegetables, and a decent amount of fruit. I even stuff a small bag of sour patch kids in the side pocket for Ashton and small sweets for all of us. It may not follow Calums requests, but if we're going to die soon we get to savor a treat. I find the two of them in the drink aisle, with Luke arguing that he really wanted some Mountain Dew and Calum saying that it would waste space. I just shrug at Luke and wait for them to turn around, then I shove a couple cans into my bag. I'm chilling by the front doors when Calum finally talks to me.

“Are you okay, Ten?” His once intense eyes are now softer as he questions me.

“I'm fine,” I tell him with a small smile. “Just gathering necessities.”

“You heard your brother and Ashton?”

“Yeah. It's a good ploy, I guess. I didn't know it was possible.” I admit while looking away from him. The neon “food” sign, the linoleum tiles, Luke eating cheetos a couple aisles away. Anything to avoid that gaze.

“I didn't either, I'm sorry you had to be the first to experience that. It can't be easy.” he pauses for a moment, “But I did find something for you since you like reading so much,”

Calum now holds three books in his hands with a smile. I graciously take them from him and look at the covers to see if I know the titles or authors. The gesture is far more than I ever expected out of this man, yet here he is handing me books just because he knows I enjoy reading.

“Thank you so much, Cal” I beam at him.

“It's not a problem” Calum nods.

Maybe spending the end of the world with these guys won't be so bad.

Tags: @bodaciousidiot @nicholerodz @filleinterrupted @5sos-luna @woahthereangela @aspiringwildfire [if anyone wants added or removed, just ask]

[karazrel]

stydia :)

thank you love :)

Gives nose/forehead kisses: definitely stiles, he’s so much taller than lydia (and he never lets her forget it) so he’s always bending down to give her a kiss on the forehead 

Gets jealous the most: they’re both relatively jealous people but in completely different ways. like stiles? he’s always considered lydia to be miles out of his league so his jealousy is something quiet and hidden between strained smiles and bad jokes. but lydia? she burns hot and fierce and one minute stiles is obliviously chatting to the nice barista  and the next he has an arm-full of lydia who’s kissing him in a decidedly inappropriate way for public spaces

Takes care of on sick days: so we all know lydia is like a Workaholic who just.. Does Not Know How To Take A Break, even at her own peril (circa teen wolf 2011-2018) and she is the absolute worst person at being sick, not because she’s whiny but because she absolutely refuses to even acknowledge any illness of hers. so after they’ve finally gotten together stiles makes it his mission to get her to take better care of her health even if it means literally carrying her out of the library in the middle of the day because ‘lydia martin you will get some rest or so help me god i will tie you to the bed’

Drags the other person out into the water on beach day: okay so i have this headcanon that allison absolutely loved the beach and she’d drag lydia to this secluded cliffside strip of beach every weekend regardless of how much she complained (’id really rather not be picking sand out of my hair for the next three months allison’) and eventually lydia grew to love the beach just as much, if not more than allison. but then the nogitsune happened and allison died and beaches became nothing more than another place lydia couldnt go without the memory of allison choking her. and at first stiles didn’t get it because like who doesn’t love the beach? but then scott absentmindedly lets it slip that allison and lydia used to pretty much live there and it all suddenly makes so much sense. and we all know stiles just cannot let things go and so he plans a surprise trip and takes lydia to the very same beach she used to visit with allison and lydia is crushed and furious but more than anything she’s so tired of trying to forget someone who brought her so much happiness. and just when she thinks she’s all cried out, stiles brings out a fucking sharpie pen and tells her that allison deserves to be here with them too, and lydia has tears in her eyes when she writes A.A. on the nearest rock. and when stiles drags her towards the water she’s laughing just as loud and hard as before and it feels something like rebirth.

Brings the other lunch at work: they take turns because honestly? they’re both so damn bad at taking care of themselves. like lydia will spend three days straight in her lab if stiles doesnt send her 10000 messages reminding her to come home. and when stiles is working on a case? he’s damn near unresponsive to anything that isn’t a case file. so they’re both there for each other with food and a reminder to actually get some sleep when it matters.

Tries to start role-playing in bed: okay like definitely stiles 10000% because like he’s a dumbass and now he’s a dumbass with a badge so like think of all the /potential/ and so one day he walks into their house and he strides up to lydia all gruff and confident and tells her if being sexy is a crime then you’re guilty as charged ms martin and lydia just…. bursts out laughing for like 15 minutes straight (she does let him keep the handcuffs though)

Embarrassingly drunk dancer: stiles stilinski, this doesnt even need an explanation 

Firmly believes in couples costumes: again, definitely stiles like he’s been in love with lydia for like ten years ‘think of all the couples costumes we could’ve tried out in those years lydia! think of all the wasted potential!’ and lydia pretends to hate it but secretly she loves how dorky stiles is and how damn excited he gets planning their costume every single year

Breaks the expensive gift rule during Christmas: lydia for sure, like stiles’ gifts are always thoughtful knickknacks and handcrafts or photographs, things that warm lydias heart and make her fall in love with him all over again and she’s at a loss for what to get this beautiful man who’s given her everything she’s ever wanted and she knows that stiles doesnt care about how expensive a gift is but seeing him light up when he realises she got him an original star wars figure - or some other nerdy gift that probably cost thousands of dollars - is enough to make her day.

Makes the other eat breakfast: stiles has basically spent the better part of his teenage years making sure his dad stuck to an actual healthy diet and that’s only expanded to include lydia in the past couple of years so he insists that she eat breakfast every single morning or at least take something with her to work and send him a picture of the finished meal because he knows that if left to her own devices she’d have a cracker and call it a day

Remembers anniversaries: stiles! stiles! stiles! again, he just cannot believe that he’s married to lydia freaking martin and so any anniversary is a heartwarming reminder that he’s finally with the woman he loves so he’s always (and i mean always) doing The Most

Brings up having kids first: so one day stiles is visiting lydia at work and he notices this like gaggle of young kids surrounding her being pretty much enthralled by her every word - later he finds out that she volunteered as part of a project aimed at introducing young girls to the STEM field and she’s somewhat of a mentor - but right now all he can focus on is lydia’s brilliant smile and her bending down and talking in soft tones with the kids and answering all their questions and he’s sure his brain has short circuited because how else would you explain why he’s pretty much frozen and incapable of forming coherent words. after that, stiles cant stop thinking about lydia and kids and lydia with kids (their kid specifically) and one date night they’re out in a restaurant ordering food and lydia turns to him with a smile and asks ‘what would you like?’ and stiles just bursts out in a way too loud voice ‘kids!’ which garners a few confused looks but starts a much overdue conversation (and if ten years later claudia asks when exactly they decided to have kids at least they’ll have a funny story to tell)

Kills the bugs: neither! they’re both like borderline terrified of insects altogether so the logical thing to do? call actual saint scott mccall to come save the day and release the bugs into the wilderness

First to define them as a couple: lydia, and not because stiles doesnt want to, it’s just that they’re still so new and he kind of like cant believe that theyre an actual couple, like a couple who go out together, exclusively and he’s still waiting for someone to jump out and say ‘sike! we got you good!’ and so he’s pretty much walking on egg shells until lydia figures it out and decides to overcompensate by literally telling every person they meet until stiles is convinced that yes, this is real, and ‘no ashton kutcher is not hiding in a bush stilinski, so you better start calling me you girlfriend before i find someone who will’

Who hides their guilty pleasures longer: lydia! like stiles is a dork and he owns it, he knows he’s a giant nerd but lydia? she’d rather die than let people know of her weird obsessions (it’s stiles who eventually convinces her that it’s not a bad thing to be a passionate nerd ‘look at me, i spent my entire life being a geek and i managed to marry the most beautiful woman in the world’)

Snorts while laughing: LYDIA. listen, lydia martin may seem like a composed and elegant woman but she is such a giant dork and only a handful of trusted people know it. 

send me a ship!

[queerbenji]

Below is a lovingly compiled list of books about girls who love girls that have happy or hopeful endings! The list currently has 106 entries and spans multiple genres. It’s alphabetized by author, and links go to the books’ Goodreads pages. Recommendations are welcome! 

Sparks: The Epic, Completely True Blue, (Almost) Holy Quest of Debbie by S.J. Adams

A wonderfully refreshing, quirky, and genuinely funny tale of coming-out to your best friend–and long-time secret love.  Three chases, three declarations of love, two heartbreaks, a break-in, and one unforgettable quest.

Taijiku by Elizabeth Andre

Angela’s juvenile detention sentence on an alien underwater ship doesn’t seem very exciting until she encounters the fearsome Taijiku or meeting her crew mate Stella, leaving Angela unable to say which is the greater challenge: giant sea monsters or falling in love.

Poppy Jenkins by Clare Ashton

Poppy is the heart of Wells, a beautiful village in mid-Wales.  She has a doting family, an errant dog and a little sister with a nose for mischief, but as the only gay girl in the village, the chance of romance is rarer than a barking sheep. That is, until her ex-BFF roars back into her life…

The Music Box by Elaine Atwell

Berlin, 1942. Caroline Reed is a newly minted American spy, eager to prove herself on her first mission: to recover vital information from behind enemy lines. But she’s not the only one. Iris and Caroline come to trust each other, or perhaps it’s something more. But what does love matter when the fate of the world is at stake?

Valhalla by Ari Bach

In the year 2330 in Northern Scotland, war is obsolete and only brilliant minds are valued, Violet emerges into adulthood with more brawn than brains, branded from childhood as a useless barbarian. With the help of a group of outcasts just like her, Violet is about to learn the world needs her exactly as she is.  

Bluebell Hall by Kayla Bashe

Headstrong, impetuous Tansy Trilby can barely sit still, let alone read–but what she lacks in academic achievement, she makes up for in magical talent, and so she is accepted to be a boarder at Bluebell Hall. Tansy’s adventures lead her to discover: is love truly the greatest magic of all?

Screaming Down Splitsville by Kayla Bashe

In an alternate 1950s, two groups of people with magical powers fight for dominance. Flip thinks her healing powers are useless, while Emma has magic but is unable to speak. The two band together to escape a torturous lab.  As the women seek to evade their pursuers, their friendship rekindles, and they are forced to confront both enemies and insecurities.

Kaleidoscope Song by Fox Benwell

Fifteen year old Neo loves music. it punctuates her life in South Africa. A life in radio is all she’s ever wanted. When Umzi Radio broadcasts live in a nearby bar Neo can’t resist. She sneaks out to see them, and she falls in love, with music, and the night, but also with a girl: Tale has a voice like coffee poured into a bright steel mug, and she commands the stage.

Dissention by Stacey Berg

For 400 years, the remnants of humanity have struggled for survival in the last inhabited city. Echo Hunter 367 is exactly what the Church created her to be: loyal, obedient, lethal. But when Echo’s mission leads her to Lia, a rebel leader who has a secret of her own, Echo must choose between the woman she loves and the purpose she was born to fulfill.

Drum Roll, Please by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Drum Roll, Please is a contemporary middle grade novel about a drummer named Melly, whose parents announce they’re getting a divorce the day before she leaves for rock camp. She has a life-changing summer at camp as she navigates confusing feelings, changing friendships, and her first crush on a girl, and learns to find her own beat.

Starting From Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

Colby’s heart has been broken too many times. Her mother has been dead for almost two years, her truck driver father is always away, her almost girlfriend just dumped her, and now she’s failing chemistry. But when a stray dog lands literally at her feet, bleeding and broken on a busy road, it knocks a chink in the walls she’s built around her heart.

How to Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake

All Grace wants is her own life.  Emotionally trapped by her unreliable mother, Maggie, and the tiny cape on which she lives, she focuses on her best friend, her upcoming audition for a top music school in New York, and surviving Maggie’s latest boyfriend. When Grace meets Eva, who has her own share of ghosts to outrun, both girls must figure out how to love and how to move on.

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

Greta is a duchess and crown princess—and a hostage to peace. This is how the game is played: if you want to rule, you must give one of your children as a hostage. Go to war and your hostage dies. As nations tip closer to war, Greta becomes a target in a new kind of game that will end up killing every hostage—unless she can find a way to break all the rules.

The Swan Riders by Erin Bow

Sequel to The Scorpion Rules.

The Diviners by Libba Bray

Evie has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to her Uncle Will on the bustling streets of 1926 New York City. Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island’s other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition. Their story is told from many points of view, multiples of which are LGBT women.

First Position by Melissa Brayden

Anastasia Mikhelson is the rising star of the New York City Ballet. She’s sacrificed creature comforts, a social life, as well as her own physical well-being for perfection in dance. Even her reputation as The Ice Queen doesn’t faze her. Though Ana’s at the peak of her career, competition from a new and noteworthy dancer puts all she’s worked for in jeopardy.

How Sweet It Is by Melissa Brayden

After losing the love of her life four years prior in a plane crash, Molly thinks she’s ready to navigate the dicey dating waters once again. However, you can’t always pick who your heart latches on to. When Jordan, the beautiful younger sister of her lost love, returns to town, Molly finds her interest piqued in a manner she wasn’t prepared for.

Waiting in the Wings by Melissa Brayden

Jenna has spent her whole life training for the stage. At graduation, she’s stunned when a chance audition lands her a prime supporting role in the hottest Broadway touring production in the country. The one thing she didn’t prepare for, however, was her new costar Adrienne. Is Jenna ready to sacrifice what she’s worked so hard for in exchange for a shot at love?

 Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown

Joanna has been out and proud for years, but when her popular radio evangelist father remarries and decides to move all three of them to the more conservative Rome, Georgia, he asks Jo to do the impossible: to lie low for the rest of her senior year. Jo reluctantly agrees, but things get infinitely more complicated when she meets Mary.

Style by Chelsea M. Cameron

Kyle Blake likes plans. So far, they’re pretty simple: Finish her senior year of high school, head off to a good college, find a cute boyfriend, graduate, get a good job, get married, the whole heterosexual shebang. Nothing is going to stand in the way of that plan. Not even Stella Lewis.

Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta

Debuting on the New York stage, Zara is unprepared—for Eli, the girl who makes the world glow; for Leopold, the director who wants perfection; and for death in the theater.  In heart-achingly beautiful prose, Capetta has spun a mystery and a love story into an impossible, inevitable whole —and cast light on two girls, finding each other on a stage set for tragedy. 

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Somewhere within our crowded sky, a crew of wormhole builders hops from planet to planet, on their way to the job of a lifetime. To the galaxy at large, humanity is a minor species, and one patched-up construction vessel is a mere speck on the starchart.  But all voyages leave their mark, and even the most ordinary of people have stories worth telling.

Fat Angie by E.E. Charlton-Trujillo

Angie is broken—by her can’t-be-bothered mother, by her high-school tormenters, and by being the only one who thinks her varsity-athlete-turned-war-hero sister is still alive. She’s just trying to make it through each day. That is, until the arrival of KC Romance This darkly comic anti-romantic romance is a work of entertaining and meaningful fiction.

Debris Dreams by David Colby

Drusilla lives in the Hub, a space station used by the Chinese-American Alliance as a base to exploit Luna’s resources. When a terrorist group destroys the space elevator, space’s highway to Earth, suddenly Dru’s parents are dead and she is cut off from her girlfriend Sarah on Earth. Can Dru survive lunar terrorist attacks and find her way home to Sarah?

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst

Betrothed since childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire—a dangerous gift for the future queen of a kingdom where magic is forbidden. Now, Denna must learn the ways of her new home while trying to hide her growing magic.

Clancy of the Undertow by Christopher Currie

In a dead-end town like Barwen a girl has only got to be a little different to feel like a freak. And Clancy, a typical sixteen-year-old misfit with a moderately dysfunctional family, a genuine interest in Nature Club and a major crush on the local hot girl, is packing a capital F.

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power, but it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air. The only way to get her family back is to travel to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they’ll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl. This book is a stunning and unforgettable literary debut about discovering who you are and finding the courage to live life according to your own rules.

The Caphenon by Fletcher DeLancey

On a summer night like any other, an emergency call sounds in the quarters of Andira Tal: not only is there other intelligent life in the universe, but it’s landing on the planet right now. Tal leads the first responding team and ends up rescuing aliens who have a frightening story to tell. They protected Alsea from a terrible fate—but the reprieve is only temporary.

The Dark Wife by Sarah Diemer

Persephone has everything a daughter of Zeus could want–except for freedom. When Persephone meets the enigmatic Hades, goddess of the underworld, she experiences something new: choice. Hades offers Persephone sanctuary in her land of the dead. But Persephone finds more than freedom in the underworld. She finds love, and herself.    

Twixt by Sarah Diemer

The people of Abeo City have forgotten their pasts, and they can trade locks of their hair to sinister women for an addictive drug. Nox will give you back a single memory–for a price. But when Lottie takes Nox, her memories remain a mystery, and the monsters who fill the sky at night refuse to snatch her. Soon, a dark truth begins to surface…

Big Big Sky by Kristyn Dunnion

Rustle is a young scout in a tight-knit female warrior group of five. They’re trained to be aggressive, quick thinking, and obedient.  But somehow the group is falling apart now. So when their StarPod is transported to the Living Lab, they all know that it’s time to make a run for it, or else they’ll be deplugged - finished, dead. 

Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis

Amara is never alone. Not when she’s protecting the cursed princess she unwillingly serves. Not when she’s punished, ordered around, or neglected. She can’t be alone, because a boy from another world experiences all that alongside her, looking through her eyes. They’ll have to work together to survive–and discover the truth about their connection.

Wildthorn by Jane Eagland

Louisa longs to break free from her respectable life as a Victorian doctor’s daughter. But then Louisa is sent to Wildthorn Hall, labeled a lunatic and even deprived of her real name. As she unravels the betrayals behind her incarceration, she realizes there are many kinds of prison. She must be honest with herself and others in order to be free. And love may be the key.

The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember

Having long-wondered what lives beyond the ice shelf, nineteen-year-old mermaid Ersel learns of the life she wants when she rescues and befriends Ragna, a shield-maiden stranded on the mermen’s glacier. But when Ersel’s childhood friend and suitor catches them together, he gives Ersel a choice: say goodbye to Ragna or face justice at the hands of the glacier’s brutal king.

Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember

Mnemba has found a place in her cousins successful safari business, where she quickly excels as a guide. When she’s employed to guide Mr. Harving and his daughter, Kara, as they study unicorns, the young women are drawn to each other. During their research, they discover a conspiracy by a group of poachers to capture the Unicorns and use their supernatural strength to build a railway. Together, they must find a way to save the creatures Kara adores.

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sarah Farizan

Leila’s Persian heritage already makes her different from her classmates; if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when a sophisticated, beautiful new girl, Saskia, shows up, Leila starts to take risks she never thought she would.  Gradually, Leila begins to see that almost all her classmates are more complicated than they first appear to be.

The Cursed Queen by Sarah Fine

Sequel to The Impostor Queen, which stars a bi woman. Cursed by an enemy queen, Ansa must fight against an invisible foe—the dark magic that has embedded itself deep in her bones. The more she seeks to hide it, the more dangerous it becomes. Ansa is torn between her loyalty to her people, her love for the cheiftain’s daughter, and her own survival instincts.

Honey Girl by Lisa Freeman

The year is 1972. Fifteen-year-old Haunani “Nani” Grace Nuuhiwa is transplanted from her home to California after her father’s fatal heart attack. Now the proverbial fish-out-of-water, Nani struggles to adjust to her new life with her alcoholic white (haole) mother and the lineup of mean girls who rule State Beach. But Nani is keeping several secrets that could ruin everything.

Noble Falling by Sara Gaines

When her convoy is attacked, Duchess Aleana Melora of Eniva, future queen of Halvaria is saved by her guard, only to discover her people have turned against her and joined forces with the kingdom of Dakmor, Halvaria’s greatest enemy. After a rescue by a woman marked as a criminal, Aleana struggles to survive long enough to crowned, though her heart has other priorities.

Annie On My Mind By Nancy Garden

This groundbreaking book, published in 1992, is the story of two teenage girls whose friendship blossoms into love and who, despite pressures from family and school that threaten their relationship, promise to be true to each other and their feelings. The book has been banned from many school libraries and publicly burned in Kansas City.

Good Moon Rising by Nancy Garden

Lambda Literary Award winner “Good Moon Rising” is about two young women who fall in love while rehearsing a school play, realize they’re gay, and resist a homophobic campaign against them. 

Nora and Liz by Nancy Garden

When her rental car has a flat tire, Liz Hardy stops at the Tillot farm for a car jack. Nora Tillot walks Liz out to the barn and, as they search for the jack, the two women begin a journey neither anticipated. As their friendship turns passionate, will their happiness be shattered by rumors?

Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard

All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she’s always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts shows disrespect. But respect and loyalty, Pen discovers, are empty words. Old-world parents, disintegrating friendships, and strong feelings for other girls drive Pen to see that to be who she truly wants to be, she’ll have to man up.

The Second Mango by Shira Glassman

Queen Shulamit never expected to inherit the throne of tropical Perach so young. At twenty, grief-stricken and fatherless, she’s also coping with being the only lesbian she knows after her sweetheart ran off for an unknown reason. Her search for a royal girlfriend quickly becomes a rescue mission after finding a temple full of women turned to stone by an evil sorcerer.

The Flywheel by Erin Gough

Seventeen-year-old Del drops out of high school when her romance with another girl goes horribly wrong. Preferring chaos to bullying, Del makes it her mission to save her dad’s crumbling café, the Flywheel, while he ‘finds himself’ overseas. This book is a heart-warming debut novel about queer romance, crap parents & finding your feet when life gets messy.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner

When Cass’s best friend Julia is killed in a sudden car accident, and while Cass is still reeling from her death, Julia’s boyfriend and her other drama friends make it their mission to bring to fruition Julia’s nearly-completed secret project: a musical about an orphaned ninja princess entitled Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.

Eat Your Heart Out by Dayna Ingram

A breakneck tale of kick-ass, wise-ass, sexy-ass lesbians — and zombies.  The strip-mall calm of Nowhere, Ohio, is shattered by the sudden, simultaneous appearance of Renni Ramirez, hyper-competent star of the beloved Rising Evil B-movie franchise, and actual zombies, leaving Ashbee’s hapless staff and Renni trapped behind an automatic door they can’t lock.

That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston

Set in a near-future world where the British Empire never fell and the United States never rose, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a novel of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world.

The Gallery of Unfinished Girls by Lauren Karcz

Mercedes is an artist. At least, she thinks she could be, but she hasn’t been able to paint anything worthwhile since her award-winning piece Food Poisoning #1 last year. Her lack of inspiration might be because her abuela is comatose in faraway Puerto Rico after a stroke. Or the fact that Mercedes is in love with her best friend, but is too afraid to admit her true feelings.

The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz

Clara is a highly-skilled technician specializing in the popular ‘Raise’ AI companions. She sticks around just long enough to replenish her funds before she moves on Sal is a fully autonomous robot, at best out of place in society and at worst hated. When Clara stops by Sal’s shop for lunch, she doesn’t expect to find a real robot there, let alone one who might need her help.

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Astrid desperately wants to confide in someone, but her feel like the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn’t know the passengers inside, but they’re the only ones who won’t judge her when she asks them her most personal questions–like what it means that she’s falling in love with a girl.

Radical by E.M. Kokie

Preppers. Survivalists. Bex prefers to think of herself as a realist who plans to survive, but regardless of labels, they’re all sure of the same thing: a crisis is coming. And when it does, Bex will be ready. But Bex isn’t prepared for Lucy, who is soft and beautiful and hates guns. This gripping new novel questions our assumptions about family, trust, and what it really takes to survive.

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met, and she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.

You Know Me Well by Nina Lacour and David Levithan

Mark and Kate have sat next to each other for an entire year, but their paths have never crossed. That is, until Kate spots Mark miles away from home, out in the city for a wild, unexpected night. Kate is lost, having just run away from finally meeting the girl she’s been in love with from afar. Mark, meanwhile, is in love with his best friend Ryan, who may or may not feel the same way.

And Playing the Role of Herself by K.E. Lane

Actress Caidence Harris is living her dreams after landing a leading role in a hot new police drama shot on location in glitzy LA. Her sometimes-costar Robyn Ward is magnetic, glamorous, and devastatingly beautiful, the quintessential A-List celebrity. Soon Caid sees that all is not as it appears, but can she take a chance and risk her heart when the outcome is so uncertain?

An Unstill Life by Kate Larkindale

Livvie feels like she’s losing everything: her two best friends have abandoned her for their boyfriends, her mother continues to ignore her, while her sister, Jules, is sick again and getting worse by the day. Her only escape is in the art room, where she discovers not only a refuge from her life, but also a kindred soul in Bianca, the school “freak”.

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee

Welcome to Andover, where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers when she stumbles upon the perfect internship—only it turns out to be for the town’s most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with her secret crush, Abby, who Jess thinks may have a secret of her own.  

A&B by J.C. Lillis

Barrie dreams of a career in music. When her rival Ava ropes her into a secret collaboration, it sparks feelings neither girl expected.  Can love and ambition live side by side? Is happiness an art-killer? They’ll figure it out with the help of a blue guitar named Fernando, a keyboard named Rosalinda, and a few new friends who feel like home.

Ash by Malinda Lo

In this enchanting retelling of Cinderella, Ash must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love. Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

Huntress by Malinda Lo

Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. The exciting adventure prequel to Malinda Lo’s highly acclaimed novel Ash is overflowing with lush Chinese influences and details inspired by the I Ching, and is filled with action and romance.

Complementary and Acute by Ella Lyons

Annabell is captain of the Number Ninjas, her senior year schedule is perfect, and her best friend Jacqueline is going to be right by her side for all of it. But on the first day back, Jac throws a wrench in Anabelle’s tidy plans. Not only has she rearranged her classes and dropped Number Ninjas, she’s joined the Girls who Like Girls Program, leaving Anabelle’s entire world in upheaval.

10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac

This is the poignant and uplifting story of Maeve, who is dealing with anxiety while falling in love with a girl who is not afraid of anything. Will she be able to navigate through all the chaos to be there for the people she loves?

Colorblind by Siera Maley

Harper has a secret, and it’s not that she likes girls. She has a gift: she can see how old other people will be when they pass away. Nothing she does changes this number, which becomes especially clear when her mother dies in a car crash. Then she falls for Chloe, whose number is 16, who’ll be dead by the end of summer. An uplifting book reminiscent of The Fault in Our Stars.

Dating Sarah Cooper by Siera Maley

When a misunderstanding leads to best friends Katie and Sarah being mistaken for a couple and Sarah uses the situation to her advantage, Katie finds herself on a roller coaster ride of ambiguous sexuality and confusing feelings. How far will Sarah go to keep up the charade, and why does kissing her make Katie feel more alive than kissing her ex-boyfriend ever did?

Taking Flight by Siera Maley

Lauren is a city girl at heart. When a judge deems her father unfit to be her guardian, she’s shipped to the rural mountains of northern Georgia, where David, a personal friend of the judge, lives. Lauren’s plan is simple: to have her best friend pick her up on the day she turns eighteen, and to be as difficult as possible until then.  But her plan doesn’t account for David’s daughter.

The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse by Mabel Maney

Follow Cherry, Jackie, and girl detective Nancy Clue on their gay adventures.  Mabel Maney’s camp classic The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse has been beloved by readers since it was first published in 1993. This sparkling parody of 1950s girl adventure stories will make you laugh out loud.

The Case of the Good-For-Nothing Girlfriend by Mabel Maney

Mabel Maney’s playful parody of 1950s girl adventure books continues in The Case of the Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend. This raucous sequel also stands on its own as a swell introduction to Cherry and her pals, and a food and fashion guide to the glamorous Eisenhower years.

Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

The first in an LGBT fantasy series that follows a talented necromancer who must face down a deadly nemesis who has learned how to turn her magic into a weapon. A lavish fantasy with a surprising and breathtaking romance at its core, Reign of the Fallen is a gutsy, unpredictable read that will grab readers by the throat and never let go.

Wherever the Dandelion Falls by Lily R. Mason

Riley Montgomery is a bartender, a lab assistant, and a sex worker – all in different lives. A seemingly innocuous conversation with a graduate school professor unravels Riley’s life into three separate strands. The three versions of Riley’s life are as separate as can be, yet have one common thread: falling in love with a beautiful and brave woman named Faye Nguyen. 

Parties in Congress by Colette Moody

Elated to secure her first paid political staff position, Bijal Rao is eager to focus her efforts on the election of her candidate to U.S. Congress. However, Bijal’s first unforeseen obstacle is her profound and unexpected attraction to their opponent—incumbent Congresswoman Colleen O'Bannon—who is outspoken, charismatic, and openly lesbian.

The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin by Colette Moody

The Gulf of Mexico, 1702: When Gayle and the pirates of the square-rigger Original Sin steal ashore to abduct a doctor to tend to their wounded, they end up settling for the doctor’s attractive fiancée Celia, the town seamstress. The two forge a partnership born of necessity that Gayle soon hopes will veer away from insurmountable danger and instead detour directly to her bed.

Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz

Everywhere Etta turns, someone feels she’s too fringe for the fringe. Not gay enough for the Dykes, her ex-clique, thanks to a recent relationship with a boy; not tiny and white enough for ballet; and not sick enough to look anorexic (partially thanks to recovery). Etta doesn’t fit anywhere until she meets Bianca, the straight, white, Christian, and seriously sick girl in Etta’s therapy group.

Meg & Linus by Hanna Nowinski

Meg and Linus are best friends bound by a shared love of school, a coffee obsession, and being queer. It’s not always easy to be the nerdy lesbian or gay kid in a suburban town. But they have each other. And a few Star Trek boxed sets. They’re pretty happy. Meg & Linus is a fun story about two quirky teens who must learn to get out of their comfort zones and take risks.

A Story of Now by Emily O’Beirne

Claire knows she needs a life. And some new friends.  But brittle, beautiful, and just a little bit too sassy for her own good sometimes, she no longer makes friends easily. When Robbie and Mia walk into Claire’s work they seem the least likely people to help her find a life. But despite Claire’s initial attempts to alienate them, an unexpected new friendship develops.

Future Leaders of Nowhere by Emily O’Beirne

Finn and Willa have been picked as team leaders in the future leader camp game. Fierce, competitive Willa has shaken the usually confident Finn. Soon they both realize that the hardest thing of all is balancing their clashing ideals with their unexpected connection. And finding a way to win, of course.

Here’s the Thing by Emily O’Beirne

It’s only for a year. That’s what sixteen-year-old Zel keeps telling herself after moving to Sydney for her dad’s work. But Zel soon finds life in Sydney won’t let her hide. There’s her art teacher, who keeps forcing her to dig deeper. There’s the band of sweet, strange misfits her cousin has forced her to join for a Drama project. And then there’s the curiosity that is the always-late Stella.

Points of Departure by Emily O’Beirne

Best friends Kit and Liza have been looking forward to this trip forever. Five girls, five tickets overseas. It’s exactly what they all need after the final slog of high school. But when Kit’s suddenly forced to drop out, Liza’s left with three girls she barely knows, and they’re all learning that travel isn’t just about the places you go, but who you’re with at the time.

Because of Her by K.E. Payne

Forced to move to London thanks to her father’s new job, Seventeen-year-old Tabitha has to leave her friends, school, and, most importantly, her girlfriend Amy, far behind. To make matters worse, Tabby’s parents enroll her in the exclusive Queen Victoria Independent School for Girls, hoping that it will finally make a lady of her. But Tabby has other ideas.

Axiom by Rachel Marie Pearcy

The Assembly controls every citizen of Axiom. Everything is assigned, from their career and living quarters, to their spouse and reproduction. Ella never thought twice about it, until now. After meeting Carly, Ella realizes things aren’t as perfect as she thought. The two girls’ friendship slowly blossoms into something more, and as their love grows, so does the threat of punishment.

Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters

With a steady boyfriend, the position of Student Council President, and a chance to go to an Ivy League college, high school life is just fine for Holland. At least it seems to be. But when Cece Goddard comes to school, everything changes. Cece and Holland have undeniable feelings for each other, but how will others react to their developing relationship?

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters

When Alix’s girlfriend, Swanee, dies from sudden cardiac arrest, Alix is overcome with despair. Then she finds Swanee’s phone, pinging with texts from Liana, Swanee’s secret girlfriend. Brought together by Swanee’s lies, Alix and Liana become closer than they’d thought possible. But Alix is still hiding the truth from Liana. Will coming clean to Liana mean losing her, too?

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

One miscarriage too many spelled the end of Max and Zoe Baxter’s marriage. Zoe, for her part, finds healing relief in music therapy and the friendship, then romantic love with Vanessa, her counselor. After Zoe and Vanessa, now married, decide to have a baby, they realize that they must join battle with Max, who objects on both religious and financial grounds.

Like Water by Rebecca Podos

In Savannah Espinoza’s small New Mexico hometown, kids either flee after graduation or they’re trapped there forever. Vanni never planned to get stuck—but that was before her father was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. Then she meets Leigh, who’s utterly unique. But caring about another person threatens to bring to the surface the questions she’s held under for so long.

Her Name in the Sky by Kelly Quindlen

Hannah wants to spend her senior year of high school going to football games and Mardi Gras parties with her tight-knit group of friends. The last thing she wants is to fall in love with a girl–especially when that girl is her best friend, Baker. And Baker might want to be with Hannah, too–if both girls can embrace that world-shaking, yet wondrous, possibility.

Noteworthy by Riley Redgate

Jordan’s low voice gets her shut out of the school musical, but a spot has opened up in the elite a cappella octet. Worshipped…revered…all male. Jordan dresses as a guy and  wins the audition. With her secret growing heavier every day, Jordan confronts what it means to be a girl (and a guy) in a male-dominated society, and—most importantly—what it means to be herself.

The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed

Three misfits come together to avenge the rape of a fellow classmate and in the process trigger a change in the misogynist culture at their high school, transforming the lives of everyone around them in this story that will work its way into a special place in your heart. Told in alternating perspectives, one of whom is gay and Latina, another is autistic, and all are remarkable.

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

Juliet just came out to her family and isn’t sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that’s going to help her figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing. She’s interning with the author of her favorite book: Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff. 

Cherry by Lindsey Rosin

In this honest, frank, and funny debut novel, four best friends make a pact during their senior year of high school to lose their virginities—and end up finding friendship, love, and self-discovery along the way. Will everything go according to plan? Probably not. But at least the girls have each other every hilarious, heart-warming, cringe-inducing step of the way.

Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton

Megan doesn’t speak. She hasn’t spoken in months. Pushing away the people she cares about is just a small price to pay. Because there are things locked inside Megan’s head - things that she cannot, must not, let out. Then Jasmine starts at school: bubbly, beautiful, talkative Jasmine. And for reasons Megan can’t quite understand, life starts to look a bit brighter.

Sword of the Guardian by Merry Shannon

The shocking assassination of her brother causes Princess Shasta’s father to appoint Shasta’s new savior as the Princess’s bodyguard. But what Shasta doesn’t know is that her new guardian has a very well-kept secret: he is actually a she. The two grow closer than anyone, especially her father, could have predicted. Will the truth change their relationship forever?

The Light of the World by Ellen Simpson

After her grandmother’s death, Eva finds diaries detailing the magical life of a girl in the Roaring Twenties. She cannot reconcile the young girl in these diaries with the miserable old woman she loved. Eva starts to investigate the puzzle  with the help of a local historian and his assistant Olivia, they find a forgotten labyrinth under the city. But they’re not the only ones down there…  

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrustkie

For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. But when the pirate queen Santa Elena swoops in on Cas’s first solo mission and snatches her from the bloodstained decks, Cas’s dream of being a full-time trainer seems dead in the water. Cas has fought pirates her entire life. But can she survive living among them?

The Edge of the Abyss by Emily Skrutskie

Sequel to The Abyss Surrounds Us.

Starring Kitty by Keris Stainton

Kitty’s keeping secrets. Like how she’s struggling to cope with her mum’s illness. And how she’s falling for the girl with the purpley-red hair… A fun film competition with her friends Sunny and Hannah seems like the perfect distraction. But then Dylan wants to be more than Kitty’s secret. Is Kitty ready to let her two worlds meet, or will she risk losing Dylan forever?

Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before by Karelia Stetz-Waters

Shy, intellectual, and living in rural Oregon, Triinu just doesn’t fit in. She tries to hide behind her dyed hair and black wardrobe, but it’s hard to ignore the bullying, and it’s even harder to ignore the allure of other girls. As Triinu tumbles headlong into first love and teenage independence, she realizes that the differences that make her a target are also what can set her free.

Prom and Other Hazards by Jamie Sullivan

Frankly, prom is a ridiculous concept, and Sam wants nothing to do with it. Except for the tiny fact that she’s been in love with her best friend Tash since they were ten years old, and Tash dreams of a perfect, romantic prom. Sam had given up hope, until she spotted The Suit in a shop window. Surely the perfect suit is all she needs to finally admit to Tash how she feels.

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever. Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another. This book is about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley

Fifteen-year-old Aki has a theory. And it’s mostly about sex. No, it isn’t that kind of theory. Aki already knows she’s bisexual. So far, Aki has dated only guys, and her best friend is the only person who knows she likes girls, too.  Actually, Aki’s theory is that she’s got only one shot at living an interesting life—and that means it’s time for her to actually do something. Or at least try.

The Summer I Wasn’t Me by Jessica Verdi

Lexi has a secret. She never meant for her mom to find out. And now she’s afraid that what’s left of her family is going to fall apart for good.  Lexi knows she can fix everything. She can change. She can learn to like boys. New Horizons summer camp has promised to transform her life, and all she wants is to start over. But sometimes love has its own path.

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Darcy Patel is afraid to believe all the hype. But it’s really happening - her teen novel is getting published. Instead of heading to college, she’s living in New York City, where she’s welcomed into the dazzling world of YA publishing. Told in alternating chapters is Darcy’s novel, the thrilling story of Lizzie, who wills her way into the afterworld to survive a deadly terrorist attack.

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

When BFFs Charlie, Taylor and Jamie go to SupaCon, they know it’s going to be a blast. What they don’t expect is for it to change their lives forever.  When Alyssa Huntington arrives as a surprise guest, it seems Charlie has a chance to confront her long-time crush . And in the magic of SupaCon, Taylor starts to rethink playing it safe when it comes to her secret crush on Jamie.

27 Hours by Tristina Wright

Rumor fears two things: hellhounds too strong for him to kill, and failure. Jude has two dreams: for humans to stop killing monsters, and for his strange abilities to vanish. But in no reality should a boy raised to love monsters fall for a boy raised to kill them. Nyx keeps two secrets: the moon speaks to her, and she’s in love with Dahlia, her best friend. This is the story of one 27-hour night.

Dirty London by Kelley York

All London wanted out of her senior year of high school was anonymity.  Then she discovers that Wade, one of the most popular guys in school, is gay like her, and their new-found closeness has half the student body convinced they’re hooking up. Rumors start flying, and London is pretty sure she’s developing a crush on the one girl who sees through it all.

The Gravity Between Us by Kristen Zimmer

At just 19, Kendall is Hollywood’s hottest young starlet—but behind the glamour is a girl who longs for normal. Payton is Kendall’s best friend, and the one person who reminds her of who she really is. But Payton has a secret that could make everything ten times worse. Because to her, Kendall is more than a best friend—she is the only girl that she has ever loved. 

[tabloidtoc]

National Enquirer, July 27

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Prince Harry trapped in marriage from hell to Meghan Markle 

Page 2: Mariah Carey has slimmed down again and the formerly plump pop star’s recent pics have stunned doctors who believe she’s lost at least 60 pounds in the last year and experts believe the recent weight drop may have come with some medical assistance plus experts warn the star’s constant weight swings have placed her health at risk 

Page 3: Paris Jackson bravely reveals suicide ordeal -- admits many attempts after losing dad Michael Jackson 

Page 4: Shia LaBeouf got his whole chest permanently inked to get into character as a vicious gangster for his new movie The Tax Collector 

Page 5: Head-over-heels Ben Affleck is raring to have a baby with girlfriend Ana de Armas, Ashton Kutcher has rushed to the rescue of Hollywood pariah Lea Michele and now he’s on the outs with wife Mila Kunis -- Lea has been blasted as a despicable and cruel and entitled bully by former castmates on Glee and Broadway but Ashton who was paired with Lea in the 2011 rom-com New Year’s Day thinks she’s gotten a raw deal while Mila thinks Ashton is crazy for sticking his neck out for someone he hasn’t seen that much over the last decade 

Page 6: The bizarre marriage of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith has hit a crisis point over another man and the blowback may push them toward a $270 million divorce -- both Will and Jada have denied humiliating reports that she was involved in a torrid two-year affair with their son Jaden Smith’s pal singer August Alsina with Will’s blessing 

Page 7: Christina Ricci’s domestic battery call was just round one in what promises to be a bitter divorce brawl with husband James Heerdegen -- Christina secured an emergency protective order against James after cops were called to the couple’s Woodland Hills home after he allegedly spit at her and now Christina has filed for divorce and sole custody of their five-year-old son Freddie, Sarah Palin and husband Todd Palin quietly finalized their split 

Page 8: Lonely Caitlyn Jenner has lost hope of making a love connection with 24-year-old live-in Sophia Hutchins and she’s on the hunt for romance and the 70-year-old longs for a partner to give her the affection she craves

Page 9: Tubby Adam Sandler and dumpy Denzel Washington have packed on the pounds during lockdown and now docs fear the Hollywood heavyweights may be digging their graves with a fork and spoon -- Denzel weighs close to 250 pounds and Adam is five-foot-ten and weighs 230 pounds 

Page 10: Hot Shots -- Brooke Shields in the Hamptons wearing a patriotic bikini,  Brooke Burke on a swing in her backyard, pregnant Sophie Turner out for a walk in Encino 

Page 11: Lara Flynn Boyle stepped out in L.A. during quarantine to stock up on essentials including a bottle of vodka but with sagging jowls and a puffy trout pout the actress was nearly unrecognizable, Tom Cruise is a dominant individual who left costar Thandie Newton terrified and insecure while filming Mission: Impossible 2 and Tom has since sent her Christmas gifts linked to his controversial religion of Scientology 

Page 12: Straight Shuter -- Millie Bobby Brown with alien balloons (picture), Alicia Keys and Beyonce have both struck a sour note with their Black Lives Matter music tanking -- Alicia’s Perfect Way to Die is nowhere on the charts and few are lining the streets to cheer Beyonce’s Black Parade, Chris Pratt needs to finish filming Jurassic World: Dominion in London in the next few months just when he and wife Katherine Schwarzenegger are expecting their first child so Chris will have to make a choice between work or his wife and new baby -- Chris is contractually obligated to be on set when they start although every effort will be made so he can take the 11-hour flight home on weekends, producers of RHOBH have discouraged the housewives from being political on the show because the audience is far more interested in personal drama and fights between the ladies but Lisa Rinna intends to change all that when the show starts filming again and she plans to use her platform to push her views on climate change and other issues, despite the raging pandemic The Bachelorette Clare Crawley won’t be wearing a mask and neither will any of her suitors because the show is about escape and people watch it to forget their troubles 

Page 13: Kanye West’s bizarre pronouncement that he’s running for U.S. president has the entire Kardashian family quaking in fear about the can of worms his candidacy could open -- Kardashian momager Kris Jenner is furious because it’s likely to trigger media scrutiny and probes by political opponents into the family’s private lives and business deals 

Page 14: True Crime 

Page 15: Cradle-robbing Mary Kay Letourneau’s scandal-scarred life came to a tragic and lonely end at 58 as she died of cancer after being dumped by her husband and reduced to living in squalor 

Page 16: Jeffrey Epstein’s galpal Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest has big shots shaking -- with Ghislaine behind bars there is growing concern their high-powered pals will try to quash evidence in the explosive sex scandal 

Page 18: Real Life 

Page 19: Jim Carrey has written a fictionalized autobiography but he was too scared to confront his biggest demons -- Jim was not eager to tackle sensitive subjects like his bitter divorce from first wife Melissa Womer and the 2015 suicide of his ex-girlfriend Cathriona White, activists have demanded the removal of the Confederate flag across America but that’s not stopping an Illinois museum from proudly displaying a piece of television history emblazoned with it -- the last surviving 1969 Dodge Charger known as the General Lee used in the comedy classic Dukes of Hazzard 

Page 20: In a plot twist fit for one of his mystery thrillers novelist Dan Brown’s ex-wife Blythe claimed he lived a life of lies and charged he financed numerous secret affairs with their joint $178 million fortune, Julian Lennon is determined to get what he’s been denied by his stepmother Yoko Ono before she kicks the bucket -- Yoko is 87 year old and in a wheelchair and very ill plus she’s set to leave her son Sean Lennon who’s Julian’s half brother all of their father’s massive fortune -- Julian only wants what he thinks a son deserves and he pleading with Yoko to do the decent thing and give him a reasonable share 

Page 22: Health Watch 

Page 25: Denise Richards is so spooked by the coronavirus she refuses to do love scenes on The Bold and the Beautiful unless it’s with her husband -- she’s had her holistic healer husband Aaron Phypers added to the cast of the soap as a stand-in during intimate scenes, the Duke of Edinburgh has a shocking secret he’s hidden from the royal family for decades: he’s related to a busty pair of twin Playboy models -- Queen Elizabeth’s elderly husband Prince Philip was born into the Greek and Danish royal families but his wider familial ties extend to the U.S. which is home to Carla and Carmen Morrell

Page 26: Cover Story -- Heartsick Prince Harry trapped in living hell -- Meghan Markle’s demands leave him alone and miserable -- Harry feels lonely and directionless living in Meghan’s shadow as he struggles to find meaning in his life with a series of charity appearances designed to bolster the royal renegades’ image 

Page 28: Assistants Air Stars’ Dirty Laundry -- Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Frank Sinatra 

Page 29: Ryan Gosling, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Aniston, Christian Bale 

Page 31: Miley Cyrus has donated over $1.6 million to help homeless teens and vulnerable families though her Happy Hippie Foundation 

Page 32: Dying Ethel Kennedy has secretly ponied up a $1 million bounty to find the killer of Connecticut teen Martha Moxley in a bid to prove the innocence of her troubled nephew Michael Skakel

Page 34: Lizzo’s secret half-brother Brandon Johnson desperately wants to end a family feud with the singer 

Page 36: Scandal-scarred Johnny Depp was forced to walk the plank and exit the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise and Guardians of the Galaxy bombshell Karen Gillan has been asked to helm the next Pirates voyage and is set to snag a massive amount of money for the starring role 

Page 38: Gavin Rossdale seems to be pining over ex-wife Gwen Stefani five years after their split admitting he still thinks she’s incredible, Hollywood Hookups -- Jennifer Grey and Clark Gregg split, Lily James and Chris Evans are on, Josh Brolin and third wife Kathryn Boyd are getting ready to welcome baby No. 2 

Page 42: Red Carpet Stars -- Margot Robbie 

Page 45: Spot the Differences -- Jay Leno with his vintage Lincoln Continental 

Page 47: Odd List